It's not official yet, but Harvard administrators are signaling they plan on having all students back on campus in the fall.
All eyes in the higher education world are on the Ivy League school in Cambridge — a bellwether for many four-year residential private colleges.
As the number of COVID-19 cases drops, Claudine Gay, dean of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, told the student newspaper The Crimson that administrators are currently planning for a full return for students, faculty and staff. Gay said they are considering hybrid teaching and learning, a mix of in-person and online classes, for larger courses.
This semester, with about 1,700 students on campus, only a handful of students have been involved in a pilot program. Undergraduate enrollment has dropped nearly 20 percent after many chose to defer rather than take their courses online.
Researchers at Davidson’s College Crisis Initiative, who've been tracking schools’ COVID-19 plans, say there is not much data on regional or national plans for the fall. Many institutions may be waiting to announce their official plans until after the admissions cycle next month.
When COVID-19 hit in the spring, Harvard was one of the first colleges in New England to empty its dorms, sending students home and migrating all its courses online.
