International freshmen said they reacted to Harvardâs plan for an in-person fall with excitement but said it marks only the beginning of a multi-step process â complicated by visa policies and vaccination rollouts â they must complete before arriving in Cambridge in August.
Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Claudine Gay announced last month that the FAS is âexpecting a full return to campusâ and a return to in-person learning in fall 2021. The news came as a relief to many College students.
Gayâs announcement paves the way for international students in the Class of 2024 to learn on Harvardâs campus for the first time next fall. Federal visa restrictions barred international freshmen from living in Harvardâs dorms this academic year. Many reported their first semester of college was marked by social isolation, nocturnal schedules, and inadequate support from Harvard.
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Harvard University Health Services Director Giang T. Nguyen said in a Friday interview he anticipates that state vaccine shipments will remain low through March but is âhopefulâ that supplies will increase in April, in time to send students home for the summer vaccinated.
Since December, when HUHS began vaccinations, Harvard has submitted weekly requests to the state asking for thousands of doses, according to Nguyen. Due to insufficient supply and a focus on larger-scale facilities, he explained, HUHS has only received 100 or 200 doses at a time.
Nguyen said he expects this trend will continue until the end of the month, though he hopes supplies will increase in April.
Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Claudine Gay said in a Monday interview that she remains cautiously optimistic that Harvard will return to normal, in-person operations in fall 2021.
While Gay acknowledged the possibility of returning the full student body to campus in the coming fall, she also said fall planning efforts must remain in tune with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and vaccine distribution efforts.
âI remain hopeful that fall will bring a return to our normal campus operations,â she said. âBut Iâm also realistic that a lot of things would need to break our way for that to happen, and there are no guarantees.â
The Harvard Graduate Council mulled student government priorities and institutional challenges brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic in its first public meeting of the semester Wednesday evening.
The Council which represents all twelve of the University’s graduate and professional schools communicates graduate student needs with Harvard administrators including University President Lawrence S. Bacow and Provost Alan M. Garber ’76. Wednesday’s meeting marked the start of biweekly public meetings, held over Zoom during the pandemic.
The meeting opened with remarks by Harvard University Health Services Director Giang T. Nguyen, who said there will “probably be stages” to the potential reopening of campus come fall. Despite a recent decline in Covid-19 cases across the country, the risk of infection remains due to the emergence of new variants, Nguyen added.