Dear Harvard College Students,

Earlier this week, Dean Gay sent a message (below) describing the fall planning process. As she explained, 11 working groups are hard at work, developing a range of potential options for bringing students and scholarship back to campus safely. Additionally, there will be no decision made about the fall semester until July.

Throughout this process, we want to keep you informed and hear your questions and concerns. I invite you to join me, Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh, Dean of Students Katie O'Dair, and Registrar of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Co-Director of Harvard College Emergency Management Mike Burke for a town hall Zoom meeting on Tuesday, June 2nd at 3:00pm EDT to learn more about the principles and considerations underlying this work, as well as about the process itself. (Full Zoom meeting information is below.)

Please submit your questions in advance by accessing this form. All questions must be submitted by Monday, June 1st at 12:00 pm EDT.

Thank you, and I look forward to joining you on Tuesday.

Warmly,
Rakesh Khurana
Danoff Dean of Harvard College
 

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Dear FAS colleagues,

As I noted in my message to the community at the end of April, the FAS has launched an extensive scenario planning process, led by Dean of Science, Christopher Stubbs and Registrar, Mike Burke, to develop a range of potential options for how to safely bring students and scholarship back to campus. I write today to provide an update on our progress in anticipation of an announcement of our plans for fall 2020, which will occur no later than early July.

We are all eager to welcome students and scholars back to campus and recapture the residential Harvard experience that is core to our identity. In all our planning efforts, we are seeking a path to bringing students back as soon as conditions allow, while continuing their academic progress in the meantime and remaining a vibrant research community across our broad range of disciplines.

There is still much we don’t know about important aspects of our situation. And there are some questions that only the virus can answer. We do not know, for example, what course the disease will take, how testing and treatment will continue to evolve, or what the state will require and when. But we do know that until a vaccine is widely available, any options for the upcoming academic year will look different than the Harvard we left behind, with new community wide protocols and practices necessary to ensure the health and safety of both our community and society at large. How we resume our academic enterprise in the new circumstances of the fall and adapt as an institution for the years to come is our most pressing work in the weeks and months ahead.

In order to lay the groundwork for returning to on-campus operations as soon and safely as possible, we must plan for alternative campus scenarios and develop contingencies that are shaped by both government directives and public health considerations, and most fundamentally our uncompromising commitment to excellence in education. This planning is being undertaken through 11 working groups. Each is led by a chair or co-chairs and draws on the diverse expertise and perspectives of both our faculty and our staff. Those chairs comprise a steering committee that enables information sharing and collaboration across working groups and coordination with related University planning efforts. The working groups and their leads are as follows:

Decision Framework: Decision flow diagram and framework. Leads: Christopher Stubbs, Dean of Science, Samuel C. Moncher Professor of Physics and of Astronomy; Mike Burke, FAS Registrar

Five-year Horizon: Consider five-year perspective, advise on longer-term impacts of AY 20-21 decisions. Provide a vision for where Harvard College is headed. Lead: Maya Jasanoff, X.D. and Nancy Yang Professor of the Arts and Sciences, Coolidge Professor of History, Harvard College Professor

Financial Planning: Establish a framework for strategic financial planning. Evaluate fiscal impacts of AY 20-21 scenarios. Lead: John Campbell, Morton L. and Carole S. Olshan Professor of Economics

Go for Fall: Identify conditions that would allow for the return of a substantial number of students to campus for Fall 2020, and advocate for that outcome. Lead: Mike Burke, FAS Registrar

Restarting Scholarship: Determine process for staged return to on-campus scholarship. Lead: Christopher Stubbs, Dean of Science, Samuel C. Moncher Professor of Physics and of Astronomy

Houses and Facilities: Determine what we need to do in order to prepare undergraduate houses and other facilities for safe operation in a post-Covid-19 world. Leads: L. Mahadevan, Lola England de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics, Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Professor of Physics, Faculty Dean of Mather House; Zak Gingo, Associate Dean, Office of Physical Resources and Planning

Enrollment: Advise on interplay between offerings, deferrals, and related issues. Lead: David Laibson, Robert I. Goldman Professor of Economics, Faculty Dean of Lowell House

Scheduling: Consider how to best use both 12-month academic calendar and 24-hour classroom scheduling. Leads: Jay Harris, Harry Austryn Wolfson Professor of Jewish Studies, Former Dean of Undergraduate Education; Erika McDonald, Associate FAS Registrar

Testing and Tracing: Advise on viral and serological testing, and contact tracing methods in coordination with the University. Leads: Latanya Sweeney, Professor of Government and Technology in Residence, the Director of the Data Privacy Lab in the Institute of Quantitative Social Science at Harvard, Faculty Dean in Currier House; Mark Fishman, Professor in the Harvard Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology and Chief of the Pathways Clinical Service at the Massachusetts General Hospital

Remote Experience AY 20-21: Coordinate Harvard College efforts on preparing for the remote elements of AY 20-21, including both formal courses and extra-curricular aspects. Lead: Amanda Claybaugh, Samuel Zemurray Jr. and Doris Zemurray Stone Radcliffe Professor of English, Harvard College Professor, Dean of Undergraduate Education

Division of Continuing Education Coordination: Coordinate with DCE in planning for various scenarios and help leverage DCE’s experience in remote education. Lead: Henry Leitner, Senior Lecturer in Computer Science, DCE Chief Innovation Officer, Interim Dean of DCE

FAS community input is essential to this effort. The Academic Divisions and SEAS are regularly convening faculty conversations with departments. Surveys and other mechanisms for graduate and undergraduate student input are being developed and some have already been implemented, and discussions with student advisory groups have begun. If you have not already, please share your ideas and perspectives here: FASscenarioplanning@fas.harvard.edu. All messages are routed to appropriate working groups and archived.

I am enormously grateful to these colleagues for undertaking a complex and consequential effort. The significant uncertainties of our present situation make this work particularly difficult. Nevertheless, the steering committee is moving quickly to engage the barriers that stand between today and our return to campus, and I am eager to receive their recommendations.

Sincerely,
Claudine Gay
Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences