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CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts: Harvard graduates celebrated commencement on Thursday at a pivotal time for the Ivy League school, cheering speakers who emphasized maintaining a diverse and international student body and standing up for truth in the face of attacks by the Trump administration.
Harvard鈥檚 battles with Trump over funding and restrictions on teaching and admissions presented another challenge for the thousands of graduates who started college as the world was emerging from a pandemic and later grappled with student-led protests over the war in Gaza.
鈥淲e leave a campus much different than the one we entered, with Harvard at the center of a national battle of higher education in America,鈥� Thor Reimann told his fellow graduates. 鈥淥ur university is certainly imperfect, but I am proud to stand today alongside our graduating class, our faculty, our president with the shared conviction that this ongoing project of veritas is one that is worth defending.鈥�
Other schools face the loss of federal funding and their ability to enroll international students if they don鈥檛 agree to the Trump administration鈥檚 shifting demands. But Harvard, which was founded more than a century before the nation itself, has taken the lead in defying the White House in court and is paying a heavy price.
A school under threat
Among the Trump administration鈥檚 latest salvos was asking federal agencies to cancel about $100 million in contracts with the university. The government already canceled more than $2.6 billion in federal research grants, moved to cut off Harvard鈥檚 enrollment of international students and threatened its tax-exempt status.
Visa interviews for international students admitted to schools nationwide were halted on Tuesday, and Trump said Wednesday that Harvard should reduce its international enrollment from 25 percent to about 15 percent.
Sustained by a $53 billion endowment, the nation鈥檚 wealthiest university is testing whether it can be a bulwark against Trump鈥檚 efforts to limit what his administration calls antisemitic activism on campus, which Harvard sees as an affront to the freedom to teach and learn nationwide.
Citing campus protests against Israel as proof of 鈥渁ntisemitic violence and harassment,鈥� the Trump administration has demanded that Harvard make broad leadership changes, revise its admissions policies, and audit its faculty and student body to ensure the campus is home to many viewpoints.
Harvard President Alan Garber disputed the government鈥檚 allegations, saying in a letter this month that the school is nonpartisan and has taken steps to root out antisemitism on campus. He insisted that Harvard is in compliance with the law, calling the federal sanctions an 鈥渦nlawful attempt to control fundamental aspects of our university鈥檚 operations.鈥�

In response to the administration鈥檚 threats, Harvard has sued to block the funding freeze and persuaded a federal judge to temporarily halt the ban on enrolling international students. During a hearing in Boston on Thursday, the judge extended her order blocking the ban.
Calls for Harvard to stand strong
Garber didn鈥檛 directly touch on the Trump administration threats Thursday. But he did get a rousing applause when he referenced the university鈥檚 global reach, noting that it is 鈥渏ust as it should be.鈥�
Others speakers were more direct. Speaking in Latin, salutatorian Aidan Robert Scully delivered a speech laced with references to Trump policies.
鈥淚 say this: ... Neither powers nor princes can change the truth and deny that diversity is our strength,鈥� Scully said.
It was a sentiment echoed by Yurong 鈥淟uanna鈥� Jiang, a Chinese graduate who studied international development. She described growing up believing that the 鈥渨orld was becoming a small village鈥� and finding a global community at Harvard.
鈥淲hen I met my 77 classmates from 32 different countries, the countries I knew only as colorful shapes on a map turned into real people, with laughter, dreams and the perseverance to survive the long winter in Cambridge,鈥� she said of the other students in her program. 鈥淕lobal challenges suddenly felt personal.鈥�
Now, though, she said she wonders whether her worldview is under threat.
鈥淲e鈥檙e starting to believe those who think differently, vote differently or pray differently, whether they are across the ocean or sitting right next to us, are not just wrong 鈥� we mistakenly see them as evil,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut it doesn鈥檛 have to be this way.鈥�
Others weigh in
Dr. Abraham Verghese, a bestselling author and Stanford University expert on infectious diseases, opened his keynote address by saying he felt like a medieval messenger 鈥渟lipping into a besieged community.鈥� He praised Harvard for 鈥渃ourageously defending the essential values of this university and indeed of this nation,鈥� and told students that more people than they realize have noticed the example they鈥檝e set.
鈥淣o recent events can diminish what each of you have accomplished here,鈥� Verghese said.
On Wednesday, basketball Hall of Famer and activist Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the 鈥淐lass Day鈥� speaker, praising Harvard for standing up to the Trump administration and comparing Garber鈥檚 response to Rosa Parks鈥� stand against racist segregation.

鈥淎fter seeing so many cowering billionaires, media moguls, law firms, politicians and other universities bend their knee to an administration that is systematically strip-mining the US Constitution, it is inspiring to me to see Harvard University take a stand for freedom,鈥� he said.
Brynn Macaulay, who received a master鈥檚 degree in public and global health, said she hopes such students will keep enrolling because they bring a wealth of knowledge and perspective.
鈥淥n a personal level, it feels like somebody is attacking people that I love and that I consider to be family,鈥� she said.
Samartha Shrestha, a fellow public health graduate from Spokane, Washington, said it was disheartening to see the funding cuts鈥� impacts 鈥� one of his professors was laid off 鈥� and international students鈥� worrying.
鈥淚鈥檓 hopeful that they鈥檙e able to continue getting an education from one of the best, if not the the best, universities in the whole world,鈥� he said. 鈥淢y hope and dream is that one day they do graduate, just like I did today, and get to carry on the Harvard tradition to bring change wherever they go in the world.鈥�