The only undergraduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who will be invited back to campus this fall are seniors, according to the university's plan for the coronavirus pandemic and the upcoming semester.
Other students can apply for "special consideration housing" on a case-by-case basis, including for visa issues, according to the MIT plan posted to an FAQ page on its website, which was first reported by the student newspaper The Tech.
All students on campus will move out during the Thanksgiving break and join the rest of the class doing online learning.
MIT is offering a $5,000 credit for students' tuition and costs, and tuition will no longer be increased for the 2020-2021 year.
"To navigate the many painful trade-offs, we relied on bedrock principles: protecting the health of our entire community, preserving our ability to deliver on MIT’s mission of teaching and research, enabling students to stay on track to their degrees – and doing all this with equity, fairness and caring," university President L. Rafael Reif said in a letter to the community.
Reif addressed Monday's announcement from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency that people in the country on student visas won't be able to stay if their classes are online only. He said that MIT is reviewing what the rule change means and will address affected students as soon as possible.
Should the coronavirus situation improve, MIT hopes to bring back other undergraduate students to campus in the spring.
Graduate students "can expect a combination of online and in-person instruction," Reif said -- some have already returned to Cambridge for work in June.
MIT's fall term begins Sept. 1.
