Following Uptick in Campus Respiratory Illnesses, Students Criticize Dorm Ventilation

Some Harvard undergraduates blamed poor dorm ventilation systems for a surge of respiratory illness on campus last month.

In February, Harvard University Health Services reported a spike in cases of the flu and Covid-19, which several students attribute in part to poor air quality in indoor spaces. As colder winter temperatures necessitated closed windows in dorms, some students said they felt the lack of air circulation contributed to illness.

“We don’t keep the windows open,” Zahra F. Choudry ’27, a Pennypacker resident, said. “I could not breathe at night and the only thing I could do was take my roommate’s humidifier and keep the freezing, cold, outside air flowing in.”

Several weeks into the spring semester, some students say they’re still feeling sick.

Jane E. Lilly ’27 said the ventilation in Harvard Yard’s “quite old buildings” are “definitely a player” in the spread of respiratory illnesses.

“I’m hanging out with my friends, and we’re all slightly sick and definitely sniffling and sneezing,” she added.

Wigglesworth Hall, where Lilly lives, was built in 1931. Pennypacker Hall, another dorm where students raised issues about ventilation, was built in 1959.

Lilly said the air in her hallway is “really stagnant,” adding that “it doesn’t feel like anything’s moving around or flowing through the suite.”

Claire S. Yoo ’27 said she has fallen ill several times during her freshman year, which she attributed to insufficient airflow, particularly in dorm bathrooms.

“I feel like the lack of airflow definitely did contribute to my getting ill so often, because it was always like a respiratory sickness,” Yoo said. “I couldn’t stop coughing for months and months and months for my first semester.”

In an interview with The Crimson, Linsey C. Marr ’96, a professor at Virginia Tech whose research focuses on the airborne transmission of infectious diseases, said current scientific research hypothesizes “flu and Covid are transmitted mostly by breathing in the virus from the air.”

According to Marr, infected individuals spray large wet droplets containing hundreds of tiny particles when breathing, talking, coughing, and sneezing. Marr said these particles can “stay suspended in the air for long periods of time, be carried across the room, and build up over time if you have poor ventilation,” infecting even people not in the immediate vicinity of a sick person.

Marr, a former Adams resident, identified what she remembered as a lack of ventilation in dorm rooms as a potential cause for illness.

“There were just radiators on the wall, and you would open the windows if you needed some air,” she said.

Marr said dining halls — typically considered higher risk areas — present reduced risks for the spread of disease because of their high ceilings, which provide space “for dilution of virus in the air.”

In a statement to The Crimson, College spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo wrote that “all of the Harvard buildings have robust preventative maintenance programs that ensure the systems are running as they were designed.”

“Students with questions should contact their Building Manager in the Houses or Yard Operations in their first year residences,” Palumbo added.

But Marr said the typical standards set by building codes for ventilation — the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers standards for ventilation — are not “designed with disease transmission in mind.”

According to Marr, ASHRAE issued new standards last year designed to reduce airborne transmission of disease, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention similarly issued new recommendations to have “at least five air changes per hour.”

Marr said she “doubts” Harvard buildings meet the new standards, given that they “were just introduced.”

Marr added that she’s “glad” Harvard is maintaining appropriate standards, but added that there is not yet a way to enforce the newest guidelines.

Choudry, the Pennypacker resident, said she is concerned with the upkeep of these standards, specifically mentioning the state of the vents in her room.

“Doesn’t seem to me that they’re something that gets cleaned or dusted,” she said. “I saw piles and piles and piles of dust.”

Despite some student’s frustrations, Lilly is still holding out hope for improved ventilation and filtration systems.

“It would be nice to have just fans in rooms and more air filters and stuff, but I also do understand that a lot of the buildings are quite old, and it is difficult to maintain a system like that,” she said.

—Staff writer Alex Chou can be reached at alex.chou@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Camilla J. Martinez can be reached at camilla.martinez@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @camillajinm.