Harvard Law School To Hold All Fall 2020 Classes Online Due To Coronavirus

When will the rest of the T14 fall in line?

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Slowly but surely, states across the country are reopening after having been on lockdown thanks to the pandemic that wreaked havoc upon employment and the economy writ large. The outlook for higher education however, is still murky at this point, with no real clear picture as to how schools will be able to offer proper social-distancing procedures in their classrooms. At the height of the coronavirus outbreak, law schools were forced to turn to technology on a dime, offering all manner of remote learning opportunities to their students. One elite law school is planning to avoid all of the uncertainties of opening its doors this fall by offering an entire semester of online classes.

Harvard Law is the first law school in America to go fully remote for Fall 2020.

According to an email sent late this afternoon by Dean John Manning, due to “daily news about the continuing health risks of the pandemic, advice from public health experts, and the very real concern that testing will not yet be available on the scale or frequency needed to adequately monitor COVID-19-related illness in the Harvard community,” the school will be hosting all of its classes online this fall. Here’s an excerpt from his letter to students (available on the next page):

We have all hoped these past few months that the upcoming academic year could begin, at least in part, on campus. However, in light of the daily news about the continuing health risks of the pandemic, advice from public health experts, and the very real concern that testing will not yet be available on the scale or frequency needed to adequately monitor COVID-19-related illness in the Harvard community, we have found it necessary to conclude that Fall Term 2020 will be online.

This is not the announcement we’d hoped to make. But our first priority is, and must continue to be, the health and safety of our community, and we cannot reliably conclude at this time that we can safely provide an effective on-campus program this fall. We recognize that the public health situation may evolve between now and the end of August, and we dearly hope, as everyone does, that scientific developments with respect to COVID-19 will allow greater in-person activity, here and elsewhere, very soon. We also recognize, however, that you must be able to make appropriate plans for the coming semester and year, and that we owe it to you to communicate a decision sufficiently far in advance to enable you to do so. So, while we will keep you apprised as we learn more, we must now turn our focus fully to developing the best, most robust, highest-quality online academic, clinical, and extracurricular programming we can for the coming term.

Because these are not optimal conditions, Harvard Law will also be supplementing student aid with a new Technology Assistance Fund that will provide up to $1 million to help students overcome obstacles to the new online learning environment. The school will even offer some limited on-campus dorm housing for students who may find it difficult to learn at home. Last, but certainly not least, because not everyone wants go to to Zoom School of Law, Harvard will offer entering and returning students alike an extended period to make their decisions on deferral or academic leave.

But wait, there’s more. Buried within this announcement is a link to an FAQ about Harvard’s remote Fall 2020 experience. If you thought your grades would still be pass/fail, you’d be wrong. “Grading for the Fall Term 2020 will be in accordance with the Law School’s standard grading policies,” notes the FAQ sheet. And what about tuition? Surely the school can’t be charging as much for an entire semester conducted online. Well, Harvard won’t be raising tuition, so that’s something:

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For Academic Year 2020-2021, HLS has decided to freeze its tuition rate at the 2019-2020 level. Therefore, tuition will remain flat at $65,875 for 2020-2021. Financial aid will continue to be a top priority as we work to support those in need.

Now that Harvard has spoken, we wonder when the rest of the T14 will fall in line. How long will it take for all other law schools to make the same decision after the dust has settled among the most prestigious schools? That said, we certainly hope that other schools are willing to offer more reasonable tuition pricing to their students. Online law school isn’t the same as brick-and-mortar law school, and pandemic or not, students shouldn’t be forced to debt-finance remote education as if it is.


Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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