Claverly Hall complete; Apthorp scheduled to finish this summer BACOW: All of us hope that by fall we will have returned to some semblance of normality but we’re also planning for contingencies. If this virus has taught us anything, it is that we need to be flexible, and adaptable. GAZETTE: Along those same lines, the pandemic has fundamentally changed the nature of work for so many. Do you have a sense of what work will look like at Harvard going forward?
BACOW: I think we’ve learned that people can work far more effectively from remote locations than we ever might have imagined. I have not set foot in Mass Hall since March 13, except for five minutes to reclaim a notebook that I left there shortly after I departed. If you had told me that I could do my job from my study here at Elmwood for a year without seeing the deans and VPs, the faculty, students, staff, alumni, donors, or the governing boards in person, I would have said, “No way.” But now we’ve all learned that we can accomplish a lot remotely without having to travel nearly as much as we did previously. I think that when the day comes that this pandemic is in the rearview mirror, we will be looking at how we can provide more flexibility in how people work.