What Harvard's fall reopening could look like ahead of a $415 million drop in revenue

• In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Harvard University President Lawrence Bacow discussed what the fall may look like for the school.
• Harvard is working on creating online courses from scratch in case the school needs to go remote again.
• Those on campus will have to wear masks, and students may have to adhere to schedules in dining halls.
• Bacow also said that some sports likely won't be played in the fall.

On Wednesday, Harvard University announced its Graduate School of Education (HGSE) will be online for 2020-2021, and its Graduate School of Design (GSD) will be online for fall 2020.

"I recognize that this is not the situation you expected when you applied to HGSE, and none of us could have imagined the dramatic changes that have occurred in just the last three months," HGSE Dean Bridget Long wrote in a message to students.

GSD Dean Sarah M. Whiting noted the difficulty that international students may face in obtaining visas and traveling. She wrote in her message: "We believe it is important to commit now to a full semester online, so that new students and returning students who will eventually need to move back to Cambridge and secure new housing accommodations can make their plans for the fall with certainty, and without any lingering possibility that circumstances may suddenly change in the middle of the semester."

While Harvard still hasn't announced a decisive plan for reopening for undergraduates, those returning to campus might contend with required face masks, reduced class sizes, and fewer sports.

In an interview with David Rubenstein for Bloomberg Television, the university's president, Lawrence Bacow, said that following the switch to remote learning, some students have asked for reduced tuition.

Harvard is already facing a $415 million revenue drop for the year, Janet Lorin reported for Bloomberg.

In the interview, Bacow praised the faculty's swift pivot to remote learning and said that, in case the school needs to go online again in the fall, it is currently working on developing online courses "from scratch."

"The online experience, I think, has worked better than most of us have expected it to," Bacow said.

As neighboring institutions including Boston College have announced that they plan to fully reopen for in-person instruction, and with Boston University offering a hybrid model, Bacow said schools will "all have some students on campus."

The bigger question is what that campus experience will look like for students returning to campus — or arriving for the first time.

"One of the issues with undergraduates may be, candidly, the way they live and what they expect to experience when they come to a college campus," Bacow said. "We are looking at making sure that we can ensure proper social distancing with undergraduates when they're here, that they'll wear proper masks and other things."

He said classrooms will likely have reduced density, and will be disinfected after every class session. Harvard Business School announced that only around 720 students will be enrolling in the MBA program come the fall — which is around 200 students fewer than the class of 2021.

The university is also working on "protocols" to ensure that everybody is wearing masks.

And, as students won't be "gathering in large numbers," they may not be able to pop into the dining hall at any hour for a meal.

"They'll be scheduled in terms of when they can eat so that we spread them out," Bacow said.

Bacow did not address what reopening could look like for international students; one peer institution, New York University, is allowing international students to take courses at NYU campuses closer to them.

And the future of some athletics at the school remains unclear. When asked about plans for undergraduates and athletics, a spokesperson for Harvard College said that the college intends to make an announcement in July.

"I think it's highly likely that certain sports won't be played this fall," Bacow said.