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US President Donald Trump criticized Harvard University officials for their decision to take all instruction for the 2020-2021 online academic year. He also called it ridiculous and the easy way out. President delivered his words at a White House event on opening schools in the fall even though coronavirus cases are again surging across the country. The officials from the Ivy League school also issued a statement on Monday and said, “All course instruction undergraduate and graduate for the 2020-21 academic year will be delivered online. Students will learn remotely, whether or not they live on campus”. Point to be noted that the Massachusetts-based college has designed to bring up to 40% of its undergraduates back to campus in the fall, including all first-year students.

The School also said, “This will enable first-year students to benefit from a supported transition to college-level academic work and to begin to build their Harvard relationships with faculty and peers. Both online and dorm-based programs will be in place to meet these needs. Over the last few weeks, there has been frequent communication with our first-year students about their transition to Harvard and this will continue as we approach the start of the academic year”. Now, the university is making some changes, including students who will live in single-bedroom dorms, but still have to share bathrooms. It was also said, “The dorms and Houses are undergoing physical modifications to support our public health goals”.

The Massachusetts-based college also said, “These include enhanced cleaning schedules, personal safety training, and protective equipment for custodians, security guards, and House staff, improved air handling and filtration in shared spaces, hand sanitizer, wipe stations, and signage outlining our public health community guidelines”. But, President Trump said, “We’re the elite. Economically, we’re doing well. We want to do well with education. I see where Harvard announced that they’re closing for the season or for the year. I think it’s ridiculous. I think it’s an easy way out. And I think they ought to be ashamed of themselves, you want to know the truth. But I noticed that today and probably others are doing that. That’s called the easy way out. I don’t know if people are helping them. I guess their endowment is plenty big; they don’t have a problem with that. But that’s not what we want to do”.