Following a year’s worth of abnormality in the academic experience, students’ anticipation of a more normal school year—or of their first taste of traditional Harvard life—is approaching a fever pitch. After a summer of waiting, Dean of Students Katherine O’Dair answered many students’ questions in an August 18 email: she shared that while students must continue to wear masks, classes will be held 100% in-person, dining will occur in the dining hall, and social gatherings will be permitted. However, students continue to have concerns about the implementation of Harvard’s plans for this fall semester.
Constantine Tsibouris ’24 lived on Harvard’s de-densified campus for both semesters last year and is eager to return to normal college life. “All summer I visualized eating in a dining hall or going to full classrooms,” he said. “My expectations coming out of the year after being vaccinated were high.”
But he is dubious of Harvard’s commitment to in-person activity. “The indoor mask mandate makes me think the things I was expecting will no longer happen. If we’re having indoor masks, why should I expect anything else is happening? I wish they’d come out and say conclusively what they will or won’t do… the more they wait, the more I expect them to drop a bomb when we get there.”
Harvard University Health Services (HUHS)’s guidance has consistently followed its mission to keep people safe. When asked about the University’s approach in the upcoming semester, a Harvard University and HUHS spokesperson referred to comments made by the Director of HUHS Dr. Giang Nguyen in an email sent to Harvard staff on July 28. The biggest concern for HUHS at this time is the rise in COVID-19 cases as a result of the Delta variant of the virus. “We have to watch it very carefully,” said Nguyen. “The Delta variant might slip through the vaccine from time to time, and if that happens it could potentially spread in our community, as it could in any other.”
Nguyen also announced that the University would continue its indoor mask mandate, in line with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s reinstating of its mask mandate in July. “Masks are another highly effective way to protect ourselves, colleagues, and our loved ones. For that reason, the University will continue to require masks indoors, regardless of vaccination status,” Nguyen said.
Harvard had long before required that all students and faculty members get vaccinated before their return to campus in the fall semester, at one point giving hope that Harvard might return to pre-pandemic normalcy in the fall. When questioned on how Harvard’s vaccination rates might aid in predicting the return to normalcy on campus, HUHS spokesperson Jason Newton did not have a comment.
Computer science concentrator Brad Campbell ’24 questions Harvard’s approach to the fall semester by using statistics. “According to the CDC, ‘As of August 2, 2021, more than 164 million people in the United States had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.’ Of those people, there had been 1,507 deaths. Of that amount, 316 were classified as ‘asymptomatic or [a death] not related to COVID-19,’” Campbell said. “So, in total, 0.0007% of fully vaccinated individuals have died from COVID-19. According to the National Safety Council, the odds of dying by a lightning strike is 1 in 138,849. This also represents a figure of 0.0007%.”
Sameer Das ’24 feels that Harvard’s restrictions will inevitably trample on what makes the college great. “The “magic” of Harvard, for me, came from the serendipitous interactions and events that I found myself in on a daily basis while on campus,” Das said. “A major reason I took a gap year was that I felt that missing a quarter of those experiences would be glossing over a core part of my limited time here at Harvard.”
Yet some students remain hopeful that Harvard will fulfill its commitment to offering a transformative set of academic and life experiences. Jake Benoit ’24’s work in a socially distanced Harvard laboratory this summer made him more optimistic about the return to campus this fall. “I feel like there will be a very sudden shift in the college, going from this type of low-density environment to returning to bringing everyone back to campus,” Benoit said. “Granted, I am only seeing one part of the college working in a lab, but I do trust that Harvard has thought out all its logistics for bringing kids back without losing control of the situation.”
While some questions remain unanswered about what life will look like at Harvard this year, students are both excited and apprehensive. On that front, Das might have put it best: “That special part of Harvard just seems a bit more fleeting after events in the past year, but I think it’ll force me to have a greater appreciation for whatever I can get at this point—and maybe that’s all for the better.”
Oliver Adler ’24 (oliveradler@college.harvard.edu) hopes you have a nice day.