Harvard to hold May 29 graduation in shadow of Trump ‘retribution'
The commencement comes as Mr Trump piles unprecedented pressure on Harvard. PHOTO: AFP
Harvard to hold May 29 graduation in shadow of Trump 'retribution'
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts – Harvard is due to hold its annual graduation ceremony on May 29 as a federal judge considers the legality of punitive measures taken against the university by President Donald Trump that threaten to overshadow the ceremony.
The commencement comes as Mr Trump piles unprecedented pressure on Harvard, seeking to ban it from having foreign students, shredding its contracts with the federal government, slashing its multibillion-dollar grants and challenging its tax-free status.
Harvard is challenging all of the measures in court.
The Ivy League institution has continually drawn Mr Trump's ire while publicly rejecting his administration's repeated demands to give up control of recruitment, curricula and research choices. The government claims Harvard tolerates anti-Semitism and liberal bias.
'Harvard is treating our country with great disrespect, and all they're doing is getting in deeper and deeper,' Mr Trump said on May 28.
Harvard president Alan Garber, who told National Public Radio on May 27 that 'sometimes they don't like what we represent', may speak to address the ceremony.
Dr Garber has acknowledged that Harvard does have issues with anti-Semitism, and has struggled to ensure that a variety of viewpoints can be safely heard on campus.
'What is perplexing is the measures that they have taken to address these (issues) don't even hit the same people that they believe are causing the problems,' Dr Garber told NPR.
Basketball star and human rights campaigner Kareem Abdul-Jabbar addressed the class of 2025 for Class Day on May 28.
'When a tyrannical administration tried to bully and threaten Harvard to give up their academic freedom and destroy free speech, Dr Alan Garber rejected the illegal and immoral pressures,' he said, comparing Dr Garber to civil rights icon Rosa Parks.
Ms Madeleine Riskin-Kutz, a Franco-American classics and linguistics student at Harvard, said some students were planning individual acts of protest against the Trump policies.
'The atmosphere (is) that just continuing on joyfully with the processions and the fanfare is in itself an act of resistance,' the 22-year-old said.
Legal fightback
Dr Garber has led the fight-back in US academia after Mr Trump targeted several prestigious universities, including Columbia, which made sweeping concessions to the administration in an effort to restore US$400 million (S$632 million) of withdrawn federal grants.
A federal judge in Boston will on May 29 hear arguments over Mr Trump's effort to exclude Harvard from the main system for sponsoring and hosting foreign students.
Judge Allison Burroughs quickly paused the policy, which would have ended Harvard's ability to bring students from abroad who currently make up 27 per cent of its student body.
Harvard has since been flooded with inquiries from foreign students seeking to transfer to other institutions, Ms Maureen Martin, director of immigration services, said on May 28.
'Many international students and scholars are reporting significant emotional distress that is affecting their mental health and making it difficult to focus on their studies,' Ms Martin wrote in a court filing.
Retired immigration judge Patricia Sheppard protested outside Harvard Yard on May 28, sporting a black judicial robe and brandishing a sign reading 'for the rule of law'.
Ahead of the graduation ceremony, members of the Harvard band sporting distinctive crimson blazers and brandishing their instruments filed through the narrow streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts, home to the elite school, America's oldest university.
A huge stage was erected and hundreds of chairs laid out in a grassy precinct that was closed off to the public for the occasion.
Students wearing black academic gowns also toured through Cambridge with photo-taking family members. AFP
Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
21 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Activist aid ship with Greta Thunberg on board nears Gaza after reaching Egypt coast
The Madleen, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, left Sicily last week with a cargo of relief supplies. PHOTO: REUTERS CAIRO - An aid ship with 12 activists on board, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, has reached the Egyptian coast and is nearing the besieged Palestinian territory, organisers said on June 7. The Madleen, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, left Sicily last week with a cargo of relief supplies 'to break Israel's blockade on Gaza'. 'We are now sailing off the Egyptian coast,' German human rights activist Yasemin Acar told AFP. 'We are all good,' she added. In a statement from London on June 7, the International Committee for Breaking the Siege of Gaza – a member organisation of the flotilla coalition – said the ship had entered Egyptian waters. The group said it remains in contact with international legal and human rights bodies to ensure the safety of those on board, warning that any interception would constitute 'a blatant violation of international humanitarian law'. European parliament member Rima Hassan, who is on board the vessel, urged governments to 'guarantee safe passage for the Freedom Flotilla.' The Palestinian territory was under Israeli naval blockade even before the Oct 7, 2023 attack by Hamas that sparked the Gaza war and Israel has enforced its blockade with military action in the past. A 2010 commando raid on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, which was part of a similar aid flotilla trying to breach the blockade, left 10 civilians dead. In May, another Freedom Flotilla ship, the Conscience, reported coming under drone attack while en route for Gaza, prompting Cyprus and Malta to send rescue vessels in response to its distress call. There were no reports of any casualties. Earlier in its voyage, the Madleen changed course near the Greek island of Crete after receiving a distress signal from a sinking migrant boat. Activists rescued four Sudanese migrants who had jumped into the sea to avoid being returned to Libya. The four were later transferred to an EU Frontex vessel. Launched in 2010, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition is a coalition of groups opposed to the blockade on humanitarian aid for Gaza that Israel imposed on March 2 and has only partially eased since. Israel has faced mounting international condemnation over the resulting humanitarian crisis in the territory, where the United Nations has warned the entire population of more than two million is at risk of famine. AFP Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
Israeli military retrieves body of ‘brutally murdered' Thai hostage from Gaza
Thai agricultural worker Nattapong Pinta was abducted by Hamas from Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct 7, 2023. PHOTO: HOSTAGE AID WORLDWIDE/X JERUSALEM – The Israeli military has retrieved the body of Thai hostage Nattapong Pinta, who had been held in Gaza since Hamas' Oct 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Defence Minister Israel Katz said on June 7. Mr Pinta's body was held by a Palestinian militant group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was retrieved from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza in 'a special operation', Mr Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified. Mr Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small community near the border, where one in four people was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas-led 2023 attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza. The Israeli military said Mr Pinta was abducted alive and 'brutally murdered' by his captors, who also killed two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved this week. Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in Israel in the 2023 attack, Israel's deadliest day, and took 251 hostages, 55 of whom remain in Gaza. Twenty hostages are believed to still be alive, according to the Israeli authorities. Israel responded to the Hamas attacks with a military campaign that has killed over 54,000 Palestinians and left much of the enclave in ruins, with a population of more than 2 million people largely displaced. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
3 hours ago
- Straits Times
Myanmar junta says UN labour resolution ‘politically motivated'
Myanmar has hit back at a UN resolution aimed at curbing labour violations in the war-torn nation. PHOTO: AFP BANGKOK - Myanmar's ruling military on June 7 hit back at a UN resolution aimed at curbing labour violations in the war-torn nation, calling it 'politically motivated'. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) on June 5 invoked Article 33 of its Constitution, which could see sanctions imposed against the military authorities which seized power in a 2021 coup. The United Nations' labour agency said countries should ensure their relations with Myanmar 'in no way enable, facilitate or prolong the violations of workers' rights in respect of freedom of association and forced labour.' It called on international bodies to 'report any activities... directly or indirectly enabling or abetting' labour violations under Myanmar's junta government. On June 7, Myanmar's labour ministry released a statement saying the resolution had been adopted 'without due partiality and fairness' and was based on 'politically motivated approaches'. A UN investigation into Myanmar in October 2023 urged the country's military rulers to end forced labour in the army and to halt all violence against trade unionists. It found far-reaching violations of international forced labour and freedom of association conventions in the South-east Asian nation. The resolution adopted on June 5 at the ILO's 113th International Labour Conference in Geneva said Myanmar's military authorities had not indicated 'any sign of meaningful acknowledgement' of the 2023 report's recommendations. Myanmar said it had been 'actively implementing' the recommendations and had made 'continuous progress' and accused the ILO of 'turning a blind eye' to its efforts. The International Trade Union Confederation – Asia Pacific said it was the third time in the ILO's century-long history that Article 33 has been invoked. Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military ousted the democratically-elected civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a February 2021 coup. AFP Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
