(CNN)Fewer undergraduates will be living on campus at Harvard than expected.

About 20% of Harvard's incoming freshmen have deferred their enrollment, the university said in an email this week. Staff were anticipating a larger number of on-campus residents.
Harvard said it plans to have 1,168 first-year students in residence or the Fall 2020 semester, compared with 1,650 first-year students starting last fall.
Last month, Harvard announced it was planning to bring back 40% of its undergraduates to campus, including all first-year students

Finally, the University yesterday informed employees that “the majority of Harvard personnel will continue to work remotely through at least the end of the calendar year,” and that those who do work on campus more than four hours per week will be subject to initial and then recurring COVID-19 testing—three, two, or one time(s) weekly, depending on their assignments.

As previously reported, all undergraduate teaching will be conducted remotely—for the minority of students in residence and for those logging in from around the world. (That decision was made early in the planning for the fall semester, with the result that most teaching faculty members pursued week-long immersive training during the summer to optimize their courses and instruction for online delivery, in contrast to the rushed pivot to Zoom classes effected during spring recess last March.) Most of the professional schools will also conduct classes remotely.

Students began moving in to residences at Yale University on Monday, minus the sophomore class, which will study remotely for the fall semester and be on campus during spring semester, in order to reduce the on-campus population because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 1,900 undergraduates will live on campus, out of 5,200 total, according to Yale. About 1,600 undergraduates “enrolled in residence” will live in off-campus housing and 1,700 will study remotely.

Also returning are 7,500 graduate and professional students, most for on-campus study. The vast majority will live off campus, most in the New Haven area. In all, Yale’s residences will be filled to about 40 percent of capacity, the university said.

MIT shared details on its plans for the fall semester in a public hearing on Tuesday with members of the Cambridge City Council.



The City Council’s Economic Development and University Relations Committee heard an overview from Cecilia Stuopis, director of MIT Medical; Suzanne Blake, director of MIT Emergency Management; and Sarah Gallop, co-director of MIT’s Office of Government and Community Relations. Representatives of Harvard University and Lesley University also participated in the hearing.



“We understand that the moment we are all grappling with is challenging, anxiety-producing, and constantly evolving,” Gallop said in her opening remarks. “Our approach is cautious and conservative.”



Gallop said that of 6,900 MIT graduate students eligible to be on campus this fall, nearly half have preregistered for courses. Roughly 1,700 of these students expect to live on campus this fall; of these, 900 are already on campus.



Among undergraduates, MIT has prioritized the return of two groups: seniors, who have the least time remaining to satisfy their degree requirements, and a small number of other students whose circumstances require special consideration given their safety, living conditions, visa status, or other hardship.



Gallop told members of the City Council that MIT expects to welcome a total of about 900 undergraduates from these two groups back to campus in late August. Overall, about 1,700 undergraduate and graduate students will return to campus for the fall, joining the 900 who have remained since the spring