Clarification in order: Harvard will be housing “up to” 40%. Also, undergraduates not living on-campus, even if they happen to live nearby, are not allowed access to campus facilities (including the library). So a bit different from UC. @MohnGedachtnis, who told you that Regenstein will be closed this fall? The communications have been that the campus is opening up; buildings are currently in various stages of preparation but no one’s said that the library will be shut.
Harvard will actually be offering free summer school next year to those who end up not invited to campus for the entire year, and that number might be sizable as it could include anyone who isn’t a freshman or senior. Perhaps they feel that they need to help make up at the very least the academic portion of that “lost college experience.”
Regarding the proportion of classes as an in-person this fall, it’s important to realize some things. First of all, unlike at Harvard, instructors at UC actually have a choice of format. Second, P/F wasn’t mandated at UC last spring as it was elsewhere among the elite schools, who will only now have to deal with administering quality grades in a strictly-remote environment. It’s my belief that quality and rigor will be compromised unless they have some prior experience there. Third, a part of Harvard’s decision to restrict the number of undergraduates to no more than 40% has to do with their “intergenerational residential communities” - translation: they are prioritizing older faculty and other residents over adding more students. Finally, Harvard’s decision to go remote applies to the full academic year; UChicago has the option to offer more in-person classes as the academic year progresses.
Perusing some of UChicago’s fall course schedule, it appears possible to replicate @MohnGedachtnis’s 10% figure; but I believe it’s a tad low. Not sure where he got 10% - or maybe I’m looking more at what is remote vs. non (where “non” will include in-person or blended options, as well as independent study and so forth). Approximately 35% of the College majors in Bio or Physical Sciences, and those courses are likely to be practically all remote (including labs). Based on a quick perusal of various other majors, it appears that non-STEM might be about 70-75% remote on average. So that probably turns out to be something like 80% remote, 20% non-remote overall. YMMV - actually, will definitely vary - by major and by year in school.
Looking at just a couple of seminar-intensive majors anecdotally, it appears that 2/3 to 70% are remote courses. Econ, however, is a different story; practically all are remote this fall.
Turning to those crucial Core courses, Bio and Phy Sci are practically all remote, including labs; however, one or two physical science courses may have in-person discussion sections. Civ and Sosc will be 80% remote; Hum will be 2/3’rds remote. Math will be about 63% remote. F/L might vary by specific language. French was about 70% remote, Spanish about 85%.
In thinking “why bother returning to campus when I might have 80% - or even 100% - of my courses delivered remotely?” It’s important to consider what Dean Boyer has actually said to address that question:
“Our former president, Robert Hutchins once said what education can do, and perhaps all that can do, is produce a trained mind.
Getting a trained mind is hard work.
The best practical education is in some ways the most theoretical one. Yet a trained mind comes from many public and collective practices between students and between students and faculty.
Communication and collaboration are thus key features of our institutional culture.
Such training comes in the interactions among and between us as much as by individual study.
Indeed, the very nature of our communities is inherently collaborative and not isolated and insular.
That is why we decided with great deliberation that we should open the college to all students who wish to return to Hyde Park rather than to exclude some in favor of others.”
This is a very different message from the one put out by Harvard. Indeed, we know a Harvard family who has opted to skip this year because their kid is likely to be kept home from campus for the entire academic year.