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As a student at Harvard, cancelling classes means you lose progress that you would have to repeat. Maybe Zoom is not ideal for certain classes, but it’s better than no class. Not sure what the endowment has to do with anything other than to give you something to whine about?

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You’re probably answering in bad faith but here goes: parent’s point about the endowment is that Harvard is filthy rich and could easily afford refunding tuition for that semester without putting its business in jeopardy. Parent suggests that Harvard chose not to do it out of greed rather than necessity to avoid financial collapse.

Good summary, thanks. It's tragic that this pandemic has forced schools to close in the middle of the academic year. My point is that university students are paying a premium for an on-campus experience and that's not possible right now. I think it would be best for schools to simply cancel classes, partially refund tuition, and make provisions for students to finish their work later when campuses re-open.

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