Harvard announced today that it would invite only 40% of its undergraduates to live on campus this fall, in a move that is construed as hybrid-learning. All 1,650 first-year students will have the option to reside on the Cambridge grounds when the term begins on September 2. But students will not attend live classes. Instead they will isolate in their single dormitory bedrooms and take all of their courses online.
“We’re not advocating that students come to campus,” says a Harvard spokesperson. “We just recognize that for first-year students, being on campus this year is incredibly important.”
Harvard to shift to hybrid-learning in Fall semester
The advantages for first-year students include the opportunity to meet their peers face to face and to interact live with the proctors, tutors and academic deans who are assigned to first-year dorms. But beyond those one-on-one meetings and small, informal gatherings, there will be no organized live activities. “We’re going to prioritize virtual socializing,” says the Harvard spokesperson. “That should be the first option for social contact.”
Harvard and MIT making most of their students remote and online but keeping tuition the same: pic.twitter.com/RJetExfbbB
— Derek (@dvelez08) July 7, 2020
Plans for the spring semester are not yet set. Tentatively, Harvard will send first-year students home and bring seniors back to finish their final semester living in campus housing, should they choose. It is hoped that the Spring will bring with it better conditions and allow Harvard to quit the hybrid-learning approach.
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For the fall, upper class students can apply to live on campus if they don’t have access to the technology they need to learn online or if their living situation otherwise interferes with virtual instruction. Students who need access to laboratories or other facilities like non-digital archives, can also apply.
The announcement was posted today on Harvard’s website. It says that Harvard wants to “recapture the residential liberal arts and sciences experience that is core to our identity,” but that “there is an intrinsic incompatibility between our highly interactive, residential Harvard College experience and the social distancing needed to mitigate COVID-19 transmission.”
Dedicated SOPs made for first-year students
First-year students who choose to live on campus will be housed in single bedrooms inside the 17 brick dorms in and around Harvard Yard, which dates to the 1600s. With names like Holis and Holworthy, the dorms have suites of bedrooms that share common living areas and a shared bathroom. Traditionally, as many as four students share one bedroom. For the fall term, all the bedrooms will be configured as singles. Depending on how many first-years choose to live on campus, some may be housed in the 12 Harvard residential buildings just off campus that are usually reserved for upper class students.
Students will be required to wear masks, observe social distancing protocols and they must submit to Covid-19 tests every three days. The testing regime is subject to change, depending on the recommendations of public health officials.
Read more: Opening of coronavirus lockdown: Europe, USA reopen amid record toll
To eat, students will have access to “touchless food pick-up,” from campus dining halls. They can eat outside or bring food back to their bedrooms or common areas.
Students will have “some access to athletic and recreational facilities” in order to promote wellness, according to the announcement, but those details have yet to be spelled out. As for sports like football, the spokesperson acknowledged that it would be impossible to field a team if students are not present. But Harvard is waiting for the Ivy League to make an announcement, expected July 8, about league competition.
Harvard allows students to defer enrollment amid hybrid-learning
Students have until July 24 to decide whether to defer enrollment. “We maintain a flexible deferral policy,” says the spokesperson. Harvard usually says yes to those students who choose to defer. Payment for the first semester is not due until mid-August. Harvard is raising its total billed costs this year from $68,607 to $72,356.
Princeton also announced its reopening plans today. It is inviting first-year students and juniors to live on campus. As at Harvard, teaching will be done remotely.
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While colleges around the world struggle to devise reopening plans that ensure enough students will enroll, America’s most elite universities can assume that they will fill all of their seats with students eager to attend. Harvard admitted 4.92% of applicants to the class of 2024, just slightly more than the record low of 4.5% to the class of 2023.
Harvard doing all classes on-line for $49,000 a year? No! Get a full time job in your desired field. Take business courses at your community College. In 4 years you will Be ahead of most and have ZERO DEBT!
— David Benjamin (@thetoyman1) July 7, 2020
In early June, Harvard announced that its law school and five of its graduate schools will be online-only in the fall.
Foreign students must leave US says ICE
“Active students currently in the United States enrolled in such programs must depart the country or take other measures, such as transferring to a school with in-person instruction to remain in lawful status,” ICE said.
“If not, they may face immigration consequences including, but not limited to, the initiation of removal proceedings.”
Read more: Coronavirus in USA: Trump wants reopening
ICE said the State Department “will not issue visas to students enrolled in schools and/or programs that are fully online for the fall semester nor will US Customs and Border Protection permit these students to enter the United States.”
F-1 students pursue academic coursework and M-1 students pursue “vocational coursework,” according to ICE.
Universities with a hybrid system of in-person and online classes will have to show that foreign students are taking as many in-person classes as possible, to maintain their status.
GVS News Desk with additional input by other sources
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