Harvard Will Allow Only 40% Of Undergrads On Campus For Fall

Harvard University will allow 40% of undergraduates back on campus, when it reopens in September, including all freshman, but tuition will be the same for everyone -- roughly $50,000 for the year, the school's president said Monday.

Like other colleges and universities nationwide, Harvard closed in mid-March to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Now, the schools are grappling with how to reopen safely.

Already, at least two dozen top colleges and universities have talked about their plans for the coming semester.

“Harvard was built for connection, not isolation. Without a vaccine or effective clinical treatments for the virus, we know that no choice that reopens the campus is without risk,” President Larry Bacow and deans Claudine Gay and Rakesh Khurana wrote in announcing plans to begin classes Sept. 2.

“That said, we have worked closely with leading epidemiologists and medical experts to define an approach that we believe will protect the health and safety of our community, while also protecting our academic enterprise and providing students with the conditions they need to be successful academically.”

Students will not be required to share rooms but will have to share bathrooms and agree to a community compact spelling out health measures.

And the university will limit access to other residences, dining halls and nonresidential buildings and will keep the library closed, officials said. No off-campus visitors will be allowed.

Tuition will remain at $49,653. Students receiving financial aid who don't return to campus will receive $5,000 for a remote room-and-board allowance and the work requirement will be suspended for at least the fall term.

All classes will be available online and students will be sent home before Thanksgiving to complete exams.

For the spring semester, seniors will get priority to come to campus, the university said.

In May, Notre Dame announced it would begin the fall term Aug. 10 – two weeks earlier than usual so it could end the semester before Thanksgiving, with faculty preparing both in-person and remote classes.

The University of Texas at Austin and Rice University in Houston, where coronavirus cases are surging, announced in-person classes would be limited in size, with classes to begin Aug. 26 and Aug. 24, respectively.

Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., said the fall semester will take place entirely online while the University of California in Los Angeles said up to 20% of classes will be offered, combining in-person and remote learning. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology said only a few students will be allowed to live on campus.

Northwestern University in Evanston is leaving decisions on whether to offer coursework online and/or in-person to each department.