Facing SARS, Harvard Opens Dorms

The College will rent out rooms at cut rates to students hailing from SARS-affected regions who are concerned about difficulties returning next fall, but several students in that situation said the offer came too late.

Ordinarily, dorms are reserved for summer school students, student organization representatives and athletes returning early for pre-season practice. But Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 wrote in a memorandum Monday that the “unusual circumstances created by SARS” have forced the College to make an exception.

A University moratorium on travel to areas affected by the flu-like illness may in some cases require a 10-day quarantine for students returning from these regions.

“It is our hope to relieve some of the pressure you and your families may feel and to contribute to a sense of community at Harvard should you elect to stay,” Lewis wrote in the memo.

The College will offer Harvard housing at a rate of $1,300 for the summer—cheap given steep Cambridge rental rates.

While the University ban was loosened over the last two weeks to allow travel to Toronto, Vietnam and Singapore, the moratorium remains in effect for mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Several students from those areas however, said that while they appreciated the effort, they had already made alternative, and pricier, arrangements.

Yue Zhou ’06 wrote in an e-mail that although she would not go home to China this summer, she had already made plans to stay elsewhere.

“When I went to the housing office three weeks ago, I was informed there was little chance to stay in University housing during the summer, therefore I didn’t expect anything from the college and have tried very hard to find a summer sublet before reading period,” Zhou said.

An e-mail from the University Housing Office today was welcome, she said—but too late, as she had already signed a contract.

It was unclear yesterday how many students were in Zhou’s situation, but Lewis wrote in an e-mail that the number likely to need housing was manageable.

“Since circumstances were so clearly beyond their control, we looked into the numbers involved and realized that we could handle the potential demand from continuing undergraduates, in spite of the severe pressures on summer housing from a variety of sources,” Lewis said.

“We simply wanted to respond to the quite rational feeling that students from these countries would be in a Catch-22—unable to afford to stay in Cambridge, but perhaps unable to return to Cambridge if they went home,” he said.

Other students are still deciding whether to stay or not.

“I’m going to consider it, but there is more to think about than just housing,” said Bonnie M. Y. Poon ’04, who is from Hong Kong. “It is great that Lewis is making it an option.”

—Staff writer Yailett Fernandez can be reached at yfernand@fas.harvard.edu.