As the pandemic still remains a problem in the United States, universities are unable to reopen college campuses for all their students and staff. Harvard and MIT have chosen to go online for their courses with few exceptions to be on campus. Boston University has chosen to open with a hybrid model of classes, wherein most of the coursework would be online with only some exceptions for in-person coursework. Regulations vary between each university, but all are attempting to limit the number of students on campus to comply with Covid-19 safety regulations.
Returning students have mixed to negative reactions towards the way their universities responded to the issue of continuing coursework during the pandemic.
Harvard University
Earlier in the pandemic, Harvard University was one of the first schools to ask students to leave campus. Elynna Chang, a Chinese-American senior who is currently home in Atlanta, GA., was one of the many students who had to leave on short notice. “I found out I was being kicked off campus mid-March,” she said. “I was actually sleeping in my dorm when my suitemate burst into my room asking if she could come home with me (she’s an international student).” They had five days to pack up everything and go home. “I even remember saying only a few days before the announcement came that there was no way that Harvard would be able to kick all of us off campus,” Chang said.
Without making adjustments to their tuition, Harvard has chosen to do online-only for the 2020-2021 academic year for most students. “Only freshmen class will be collectively allowed back on campus, with some on-campus housing requests granted to upperclassmen who apply,” she said. “For the spring semester, freshmen will be replaced by seniors. All classes will be held online, and students living on campus will have very limited access to campus buildings.”
Chang has decided to take a gap semester and not do her coursework online this fall. She had planned to work on her senior thesis and make use of all valuable resources and networks on campus, which she is now unable to do. In addition, her decision was heavily influenced by the tuition costs for online and virtual classes. “By going completely virtual, Harvard College is now essentially an overpriced version of the Harvard Extension School,” Chang said. “Looking up their tuition and cost of attendance, a full semester at HES for 16 credits (4 courses) would total to less than $20,000 without any financial aid; yet the college is still charging $67,000 for essentially the same thing.”
“I personally think Harvard could have done a much better job in every aspect,” said Chang. For instance, forcing people to move without offering financial support has become a huge problem. Both shipping items home and keeping them in storage would cost hundreds of dollars that not everyone can afford. Moreover, she said that students would have preferred tuition reductions over “enforcing universal pass/fail, which the majority of the student body actually voted against, and allowing more than one class year back on campus in the fall.”
Moreover, Chang said, “The College held several ‘town halls’ but never once allowed audience questions and almost always delivered absolutely no useful information besides constantly promoting the fact that they had set up planning teams and were trying their best. Although they set up a few focus groups with students and sent out surveys to decide what to do for the fall semester, the majority of us did not feel heard and that they weren’t really taking our opinions into account.”
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Like Harvard, MIT has elected to go online for the fall semester. However, seniors are prioritized to return to campus in order to complete their coursework in time to graduate. According to MIT News, they will not be moving forward with the planned tuition increase this year. Undergraduates will also be receiving a grant of $5,000 as well as reduced dining costs by 40 percent.
Kevin Lu is a rising junior at MIT. “MIT’s plans for the upcoming semester are to only have seniors and a select few exempted other students,” he said. “I’m not sure how many seniors elected to stay on campus, but I think 212 students were granted exemptions.”
While he is not sure how classes and research will proceed, Lu is particularly disappointed about the cancelation of a capstone mechanical engineering course where students design and launch a product. “My original plans were to carry on with my degree and also continue training with my Lightweight rowing team, but now I’ll just be taking classes online at home alone,” Lu said. “I decided this because I don’t want to delay my education, and I also don’t think there is something as productive I could do if I were to defer.”
“This whole situation is unfortunate, and I wish the U.S. was better able to contain the virus’s spread like other countries did,” Lu said. “I am not a fan of their response mostly because other schools are opening up.”
Boston University (BU)
Unlike Harvard and MIT, Boston University has chosen to open up campus for returning students and adopt a hybrid model that allows students to take classes remotely or in-person. BU set up a “Back2BU” website that lists extensive details on how BU will proceed with the upcoming semester, including test protocols as well as life on campus.
Sean Cheng, an international student from the Philippines, has been in Boston since the pandemic. According to Cheng, BU has been contacting students regarding their plans for the fall. “I know that we’re given the option to either take in-person classes, online classes, or a mix of both. They’ve been releasing protocols for the upcoming semester and how they’ll be strictly implementing testing locations across campus and social distancing policies to ensure the safety of staff, students, and faculty,” he said. “According to the latest update, we’ve been informed that all students will be required through a digital agreement to comply with wearing face coverings, daily symptoms attestation, routine and frequent testing, contact tracing, quarantine, and isolation.”
While Cheng is disappointed in how his senior year is turning out, he is still unsure about his plans for the fall. “I can’t surely finalize what my exact plans are for the semester,” he said, “but I’ll most likely be taking online classes while staying in Boston. However, if the situation in the US begins to improve by the beginning of the semester, I could potentially attend some smaller in-person classes later on.”
A rising junior, Anica Abaquin is another international student from the Philippines. However, she is back in the Philippines and has decided to remain there for the semester. Abaquin said, “Making the decision to not return to Boston was a very hard, and frankly, upsetting process for me. As a rising junior, I am aware of the limited time I have left not only in college but also in the United States.”
“This pandemic has been a tough journey for all college students,” she added, “but I think that it has had the most impact on international college students. Returning to Boston is a greater challenge for us because of the long travel flights, ever-changing travel restrictions, fear of racism, and the difficulty of being so far away from the comfort of your family in the event that you get sick. On top of that, there are many obstacles we are confronted with from governmental policies and restrictions.”
Though she has decided to take her classes online while home in the Philippines, it was a difficult choice to make. Taking classes in person was not an option for her due to the risk of exposure to Covid-19 while being surrounded by so many people. The decision to take a gap semester seemed unlikely due to not being eligible for an OPT or CPT work authorization if she did not take two consecutive summers of full-time registration at school. Moreover, wanting to graduate on-time was a huge factor, and not all courses are offered in the summer to be able to do so. “There are many other factors I weighed out but ultimately, I decided that taking classes remotely is what would work best for my future plans,” Abaquin said.
Regardless of their individual circumstances, college students have been frustrated by a number of factors. “I’m honestly infuriated at how long it’s taking for a wealthy country like the U.S. to get things under control,” Cheng said. “The whole situation should’ve been quelled months ago, but it only seems to get worse due to the incompetence of people in power and the neglect of many ignorant people.”
Regarding plans for the upcoming semester, Abaquin said, “As with any case, there are still a lot of unanswered questions, but I suspect them to address these concerns in the upcoming month leading to the beginning of classes. In my opinion, the biggest challenge for universities isn’t in this period of preparation, rather it is in the opening of classes and how they will quickly respond and deal with crisis management.”
