Update on 3/22/2021 from Dean Sarah M. Whiting

We are all hopeful that, as vaccines continue to be administered and as public-health conditions remain on an optimism-inducing trend, Harvard will be able to gradually increase activities on campus and bring more people back to Cambridge over the next few months. Harvard leadership is targeting Monday, August 2 as a goal for an authorized return to campus for all members of the Harvard community, but individual schools and units are responsible for planning for their respective needs, and we all must be mindful of how public-health conditions shift over the coming months. Regardless, the guiding priority for us all will remain as it has been this entire pandemic: the health and safety of each member of our community.

At the GSD, we are planning a return to some form of in-person teaching and learning in the fall—contingent, as always, on public-health guidelines and our shared priority of safety for all. With that in mind, we will continue with contingency- and scenario-planning for various possibilities so that we are not only prepared but adaptable. In other words, we are proceeding forward with strategizing for both in-person and hybrid instruction.

GSD Building Committee

The newly established GSD Building Committee, which is chaired by Mark Lee (Chair of the Department of Architecture) and includes a mix of design faculty and staff, is charged with establishing and evaluating re-entry strategies and options. Your input and suggestions are welcomed at fallplanning@gsd.harvard.edu