- Harvard released a statement on July 6 saying the university will continue all-online learning in the fall – but plans to allow 40% of its undergraduate student body to return to campus.
- The same day, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a policy, announcing that international students attending schools operating entirely online may not remain in the US.
- On July 8, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology filed a lawsuit against ICE over the guidance that threatens international students with deportation.
- “The order came without notice – its cruelty surpassed only by its recklessness,” Harvard President Larry Bacow wrote of the guidance in a July 8 message to the Harvard community. “We believe that the ICE order is bad public policy, and we believe that it is illegal.”
- Those invited to the Cambridge, Massachusetts campus in the fall will include all incoming first-year students and those who “may not be able to learn successfully in their current home learning environment.”
- Harvard’s July 6 statement also addressed the possibility of a half-empty campus in the spring. First-year students would return home for more remote learning in the spring, to make room for seniors to be invited back to campus.
- All students returning to school will live in single bedrooms with shared bathrooms. In addition to practicing physical distancing and mask wearing, students will also be required to disclose daily symptoms and participate in frequent testing – as often as every three days. Infected students will be isolated at Harvard University Health Services.
- The fall semester will start, as previously announced, on September 2, but with a phased return to campus. Tuition – which can total more than $70,000 – will also remain as previously announced.
- Harvard’s decision to remain remote comes as 65% of colleges gear up to make a full or hybrid return to in-person learning.
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