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CNN
28-05-2025
- General
- CNN
Harvard commencement clouded by fears and uncertainty in battle with Trump
Donald Trump Campus protests Student lifeFacebookTweetLink Follow COVERAGE NOTE: Follow CNN's live updates Thursday on Harvard's commencement ceremony and federal court hearing starting at 8 a.m. ET. From the time Leo Gerdén left his native Sweden, he has looked forward to this day, when he'll cross a stage as one of more than 1,700 undergrads earning degrees from Harvard University. But he's not sure he will feel the kind of joy he expected at commencement. 'I think it will be quite hard, to be honest,' Gerdén told CNN. Still, Gerdén is lucky. As a senior, he always planned for this to be his last semester at Harvard. Now, many other foreign scholars fear their own time in Cambridge, Massachusetts, could be cut short. Harvard's international students – who make up 27% of the university's enrollment – are the latest group caught in the crossfire of ideological warfare between their school and the Trump administration as it presses colleges across America to adopt policies aligned with its politics or face steep funding cuts. Thursday's commencement ceremony – capping off several days of celebrations – gives the university a chance to focus on its nearly four centuries of tradition. And Harvard has no desire to make waves. This year's keynote speaker is uncontroversial, and the sponsored affinity group events that so frustrated President Donald Trump have disappeared, a terse advisory on the school's website all that remains. But in the past, commencement has also given speakers and students their own opportunity for unscripted moments, with this week's happening as the institution is trying to carefully thread a needle with the White House between resistance and accommodation. The event will unfold as federal District Judge Allison Burroughs – in a courtroom just 6 miles from the music and cheering – hears arguments in a case that could determine whether those who plan to return to Harvard in the fall actually can come back. Inside the gleaming glass façade of the John Joseph Moakley US Courthouse overlooking Boston Harbor, attorneys for the nation's oldest institution of higher education are set to face off against lawyers representing the Trump administration over the government's attempt to block the university from accepting any international students. The ban, now on emergency pause by Burroughs, already has shaken some of the world's brightest thinkers at a school often heralded as a premier global hub of higher learning. 'I have no family in the US. I came here as an 18-, 19-year-old, and now I have to deal with all of this,' Harvard Undergraduate Association Co-President Abdullah Shahid Sial – a citizen of Pakistan – told CNN. 'Students feel very dehumanized, very demeaned and very disrespected.' Many now find themselves victims of circumstance – without the pomp they expected after years of diligent achievement. 'The day I opened that acceptance letter was probably the best day of my life,' Gerdén said. 'And now all of that hard work can just be taken away from us just like that.' Harvard has walked a careful tightrope since the Trump administration began targeting it on multiple fronts. On the one hand, it is now the face of resistance to White House efforts to reshape academic institutions in its own image, with two pending lawsuits against the government: one to lift its ban on international students and the other to unfreeze more than $2 billion in federal grants and contracts. But the university also has shied away from direct confrontation in more legally precarious areas. For instance, some efforts to promote 'viewpoint diversity' on campus are worthwhile, it has agreed, even as it fights the Trump administration's demands to directly oversee those efforts. And in response to Trump's executive order aiming to wipe out diversity, equity and inclusion programs nationwide, Harvard renamed and refocused its former Office for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging into an office of Community and Campus Life, 'cultivating a culture of belonging … for all,' the office's top officer wrote. But conciliation is not universal. More than 300 students on Tuesday protested the government's actions against Harvard with an on-campus rally, CNN affiliate WHDH reported. While that event was relatively constrained, commencement ceremonies bring another moment where events are not entirely under the control of the buttoned-down institution. 'Everyone is in a state of extreme uncertainty right now,' said Gerdén, who helped to organize Tuesday's protest. Harvard did not respond to requests from CNN to clarify whether students or speakers would be expected to limit political statements at commencement. Only one change from previous commencement week plans is noted on the Harvard website: the cancellation of all school-sponsored graduation celebrations for affinity groups after the Trump administration banned universities from using their own money to fund what it casts as 'segregation by race at graduation ceremonies.' 'Harvard will no longer provide funding, staffing, or spaces for end-of-year affinity celebrations,' the school's website states, although some groups have continued their events with private funding. Meanwhile, international students – and in many cases, the parents who sacrificed for their educations – will head Thursday through the wrought-iron gates of Harvard Yard for the university-wide graduation ceremony, now shrouded in uncertainty over the institution's future. 'Think about the families coming from all over the world for our graduation,' Lawrence Summers, a former Harvard president, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer last week. 'People who devoted their lives to making it possible for their kids to go to Harvard and to see them graduate now being told that somehow this is all being stopped because of a vendetta against Harvard.' 'I'm sorry,' he added, 'I just can't quite believe that this is happening in the United States.' A major question mark hanging over the commencement is whether any participants will make political statements at a time the university is trying to avoid any activity the Trump administration could use as a pretext for more punishment. Even the choice of who should deliver the keynote address at commencement can result in political backlash. Last year's speaker was Maria Ressa, a Filipina investigative journalist who won a Nobel Peace Prize for 'efforts to safeguard freedom of expression.' The choice of Ressa drew online criticism for her critical stance against Israel in the ongoing war against Hamas, a conflict at the heart of Trump's claims that elite campuses became breeding grounds for antisemitism. Ressa's response in her speech to her critics only intensified the outrage. 'Because I accepted your invitation to be here today, I was attacked online and called antisemitic by power and money because they want power and money,' Ressa said in her address. Ressa also removed part of her prepared remarks encouraging pro-Palestinian protesters to be more understanding of Jewish classmates, according to the final report from Harvard's Task Force on Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias. Hundreds of graduating students walked out of last year's commencement as degrees were being conferred, some chanting and protesting the university's decision to deny graduation to some organizers of a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus that spring, Harvard Magazine reported. 'It was bad enough to have the disruption within the audience, the day of celebration violated,' Harvard Chabad founder Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi told Jewish news organization The Forward. 'But to have a program validate that and then to have her introduce her own antisemitic rhetoric. It was a sad day.' Ressa later said her comments on 'power and money' referred not to Jews but to Big Tech companies she had referred to earlier in the speech and 'people in power.' 'Still, if my words caused offense, I apologize,' she wrote. Ressa, who was a CNN journalist from 1987 to 2005, did not respond to CNN's requests for comment on her speech. This year's keynote speaker is unlikely to push as many political buttons. Dr Abraham Verghese – a physician, novelist and friend of Harvard President Alan Garber – is not known for taking controversial political stands. Representatives for Verghese did not return CNN's request for comment about his speech or whether the school asked to review it. Harvard doesn't have to look far into the past to see how commencements can turn unpredictable. At Columbia University graduation celebrations last week, school President Claire Shipman was booed at two events by students protesting the ongoing detention by immigration authorities of Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student and lawful permanent US resident who played a key role in last year's contentious pro-Palestinian campus protests. The government has cited Khalil's 'antisemitic protests and disruptive activities' as reasons he should be deported. 'I know many in our community are mourning the absence of our graduate Mahmoud Khalil,' Shipman said as some students jeered and walked out. Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters chanted outside the university's locked gates, the Columbia Daily Spectator reported. As the educational institution sticking its neck out the farthest in fighting the Trump administration, Harvard is not anxious to provide any more potential fodder for claims it coddles rulebreakers and promotes extremism. Gerdén's walk across the stage will be followed by a previously scheduled scholarship master's program in the fall at a university in Beijing, China. 'It would be very crazy if I would have said a couple of years ago that it feels safer to go to China than to stay in the US right now,' he said. And with the future of thousands of students on the Harvard campus being debated in a courtroom just across the Charles River, Gerdén knows some changes may be permanent. 'I was looking forward to celebrating commencement,' he said, 'but now I might leave this place, and it will not look the same next semester.' CNN's Sara Sidner contributed to this report.
CNN
28-05-2025
- General
- CNN
Harvard commencement clouded by fears and uncertainty in battle with Trump
COVERAGE NOTE: Follow CNN's live updates Thursday on Harvard's commencement ceremony and federal court hearing starting at 8 a.m. ET. From the time Leo Gerdén left his native Sweden, he has looked forward to this day, when he'll cross a stage as one of more than 1,700 undergrads earning degrees from Harvard University. But he's not sure he will feel the kind of joy he expected at commencement. 'I think it will be quite hard, to be honest,' Gerdén told CNN. Still, Gerdén is lucky. As a senior, he always planned for this to be his last semester at Harvard. Now, many other foreign scholars fear their own time in Cambridge, Massachusetts, could be cut short. Harvard's international students – who make up 27% of the university's enrollment – are the latest group caught in the crossfire of ideological warfare between their school and the Trump administration as it presses colleges across America to adopt policies aligned with its politics or face steep funding cuts. Thursday's commencement ceremony – capping off several days of celebrations – gives the university a chance to focus on its nearly four centuries of tradition. And Harvard has no desire to make waves. This year's keynote speaker is uncontroversial, and the sponsored affinity group events that so frustrated President Donald Trump have disappeared, a terse advisory on the school's website all that remains. But in the past, commencement has also given speakers and students their own opportunity for unscripted moments, with this week's happening as the institution is trying to carefully thread a needle with the White House between resistance and accommodation. The event will unfold as federal District Judge Allison Burroughs – in a courtroom just 6 miles from the music and cheering – hears arguments in a case that could determine whether those who plan to return to Harvard in the fall actually can come back. Inside the gleaming glass façade of the John Joseph Moakley US Courthouse overlooking Boston Harbor, attorneys for the nation's oldest institution of higher education are set to face off against lawyers representing the Trump administration over the government's attempt to block the university from accepting any international students. The ban, now on emergency pause by Burroughs, already has shaken some of the world's brightest thinkers at a school often heralded as a premier global hub of higher learning. 'I have no family in the US. I came here as an 18-, 19-year-old, and now I have to deal with all of this,' Harvard Undergraduate Association Co-President Abdullah Shahid Sial – a citizen of Pakistan – told CNN. 'Students feel very dehumanized, very demeaned and very disrespected.' Many now find themselves victims of circumstance – without the pomp they expected after years of diligent achievement. 'The day I opened that acceptance letter was probably the best day of my life,' Gerdén said. 'And now all of that hard work can just be taken away from us just like that.' Harvard has walked a careful tightrope since the Trump administration began targeting it on multiple fronts. On the one hand, it is now the face of resistance to White House efforts to reshape academic institutions in its own image, with two pending lawsuits against the government: one to lift its ban on international students and the other to unfreeze more than $2 billion in federal grants and contracts. But the university also has shied away from direct confrontation in more legally precarious areas. For instance, some efforts to promote 'viewpoint diversity' on campus are worthwhile, it has agreed, even as it fights the Trump administration's demands to directly oversee those efforts. And in response to Trump's executive order aiming to wipe out diversity, equity and inclusion programs nationwide, Harvard renamed and refocused its former Office for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging into an office of Community and Campus Life, 'cultivating a culture of belonging … for all,' the office's top officer wrote. But conciliation is not universal. More than 300 students on Tuesday protested the government's actions against Harvard with an on-campus rally, CNN affiliate WHDH reported. While that event was relatively constrained, commencement ceremonies bring another moment where events are not entirely under the control of the buttoned-down institution. 'Everyone is in a state of extreme uncertainty right now,' said Gerdén, who helped to organize Tuesday's protest. Harvard did not respond to requests from CNN to clarify whether students or speakers would be expected to limit political statements at commencement. Only one change from previous commencement week plans is noted on the Harvard website: the cancellation of all school-sponsored graduation celebrations for affinity groups after the Trump administration banned universities from using their own money to fund what it casts as 'segregation by race at graduation ceremonies.' 'Harvard will no longer provide funding, staffing, or spaces for end-of-year affinity celebrations,' the school's website states, although some groups have continued their events with private funding. Meanwhile, international students – and in many cases, the parents who sacrificed for their educations – will head Thursday through the wrought-iron gates of Harvard Yard for the university-wide graduation ceremony, now shrouded in uncertainty over the institution's future. 'Think about the families coming from all over the world for our graduation,' Lawrence Summers, a former Harvard president, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer last week. 'People who devoted their lives to making it possible for their kids to go to Harvard and to see them graduate now being told that somehow this is all being stopped because of a vendetta against Harvard.' 'I'm sorry,' he added, 'I just can't quite believe that this is happening in the United States.' A major question mark hanging over the commencement is whether any participants will make political statements at a time the university is trying to avoid any activity the Trump administration could use as a pretext for more punishment. Even the choice of who should deliver the keynote address at commencement can result in political backlash. Last year's speaker was Maria Ressa, a Filipina investigative journalist who won a Nobel Peace Prize for 'efforts to safeguard freedom of expression.' The choice of Ressa drew online criticism for her critical stance against Israel in the ongoing war against Hamas, a conflict at the heart of Trump's claims that elite campuses became breeding grounds for antisemitism. Ressa's response in her speech to her critics only intensified the outrage. 'Because I accepted your invitation to be here today, I was attacked online and called antisemitic by power and money because they want power and money,' Ressa said in her address. Ressa also removed part of her prepared remarks encouraging pro-Palestinian protesters to be more understanding of Jewish classmates, according to the final report from Harvard's Task Force on Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias. Hundreds of graduating students walked out of last year's commencement as degrees were being conferred, some chanting and protesting the university's decision to deny graduation to some organizers of a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus that spring, Harvard Magazine reported. 'It was bad enough to have the disruption within the audience, the day of celebration violated,' Harvard Chabad founder Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi told Jewish news organization The Forward. 'But to have a program validate that and then to have her introduce her own antisemitic rhetoric. It was a sad day.' Ressa later said her comments on 'power and money' referred not to Jews but to Big Tech companies she had referred to earlier in the speech and 'people in power.' 'Still, if my words caused offense, I apologize,' she wrote. Ressa, who was a CNN journalist from 1987 to 2005, did not respond to CNN's requests for comment on her speech. This year's keynote speaker is unlikely to push as many political buttons. Dr Abraham Verghese – a physician, novelist and friend of Harvard President Alan Garber – is not known for taking controversial political stands. Representatives for Verghese did not return CNN's request for comment about his speech or whether the school asked to review it. Harvard doesn't have to look far into the past to see how commencements can turn unpredictable. At Columbia University graduation celebrations last week, school President Claire Shipman was booed at two events by students protesting the ongoing detention by immigration authorities of Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student and lawful permanent US resident who played a key role in last year's contentious pro-Palestinian campus protests. The government has cited Khalil's 'antisemitic protests and disruptive activities' as reasons he should be deported. 'I know many in our community are mourning the absence of our graduate Mahmoud Khalil,' Shipman said as some students jeered and walked out. Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters chanted outside the university's locked gates, the Columbia Daily Spectator reported. As the educational institution sticking its neck out the farthest in fighting the Trump administration, Harvard is not anxious to provide any more potential fodder for claims it coddles rulebreakers and promotes extremism. Gerdén's walk across the stage will be followed by a previously scheduled scholarship master's program in the fall at a university in Beijing, China. 'It would be very crazy if I would have said a couple of years ago that it feels safer to go to China than to stay in the US right now,' he said. And with the future of thousands of students on the Harvard campus being debated in a courtroom just across the Charles River, Gerdén knows some changes may be permanent. 'I was looking forward to celebrating commencement,' he said, 'but now I might leave this place, and it will not look the same next semester.' CNN's Sara Sidner contributed to this report.
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Games of chicken': Trump reversing foreign student legal status raises concerns
While the Trump administration's reinstatement of the legal status of international students on Friday seems like it could be a positive move, legal experts and international students are wary of its implications. Over the past month, the federal government revoked numerous foreign students' Student and Exchange Visitor Information System database (SEVIS) records without notice. The records are required for living and studying in the U.S. To Leo Gerdén, a Harvard international student, the announcement about the reversal is only a partial victory. " I'm afraid that they're going to go back to the drawing board and going to find new, innovative, and perhaps smarter ways of pursuing the same policy of essentially harassing international students into silence," he said. The administration said it would be working on a new policy for international students studying in the U.S. to provide a framework for SEVIS record terminations. The status of international students' visas is tracked through the SEVIS database. A SEVIS record allows a foreign student to remain in the United States. Over the course of the past month, over a thousand students have been notified that their student visas and/or their status had been revoked. In response, over 100 lawsuits were filed, with more than 50 of the cases ordering the Trump administration to temporarily undo the actions, according to Politico. Five international students — including two from Worcester Polytechnic Institute — filed a federal class action lawsuit last week in New Hampshire federal court that aims to represent more than 100 students in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island who had their F-1 student immigration status revoked by the Republican administration. Read more: Could Trump's crackdown on foreign students exacerbate declining college enrollment? Gerdén said he still doesn't feel safe as an international student in the U.S. who has spoken out against the Trump administration. " I am feeling it every day, whenever I'm walking on the street, I'm looking behind my shoulder and thinking if that man who looks like a civilian is actually a civilian or if it's a masked ICE agent," he said. The decision by the Trump administration raises more questions than answers, according to legal experts. " All we have seen is a series of restoration of SEVIS but we can't tell from the systems we've seen so far whether they're retroactive. We can't tell how that will affect the student's future statuses. We can't tell if ICE will be working with [the] Department of State to un-revoke the visas they caused revocations of, and we can't tell whether or not ICE will even issue an apology to these students for upending their lives," Charles Kuck, former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said. Even if students' SEVIS records are restored, it is unclear whether they will have a period of unlawful presence from their revocation, which will cause them future problems, Kuck said. " We don't know any of the real information you need to know as a lawyer to determine whether this is a good measure, a full measure or a half measure," said Kuck, who is also an adjunct faculty member at Emory University. While students' SEVIS records are being reinstated, it remains unclear whether their student visa could also be reinstated, according to Stephen Yale-Loehr, a retired immigration law professor at Cornell University. 'It is a welcome development, but there are a lot of questions that remain to be answered,' he said. While the Trump administration's decision to reverse course isn't fully known, legal experts suspect it could be due to the number of court cases that have gone against the federal government's actions. The actions from the Trump administration were 'legally indefensible,' Ian Campbell, an immigration lawyer, said. 'Even if one of these cases had made it to the Supreme Court, which is generally highly deferential to Trump on immigration, especially, they would have been forced to reinstate SEVIS for all of the cases I am aware of,' Campbell said. He questions who is 'behind the wheel, and what the plan was all along?' 'If they weren't prepared to fight those cases for more than a week, why bother in the first place? Even if the plan was just to intimidate international students and the universities that sponsor them, why fold so quickly?' said Campbell, who graduated from Harvard Law. The Trump administration did something similar with tariffs, announcing it would impose up to a 145% tariff on Chinese goods and a universal 10% tariff on all countries in addition to higher tariffs for numerous countries. The administration later said it would implement a 90-day pause on most of its plan, although the 10% universal tariff remains. 'If you can ascribe any conscious strategy to the administration, it seems to be initiating games of chicken, but then immediately backing down,' he said. 'Except that no one would choose that strategy on purpose and it seems more likely that there's simply no plan at all,' Campbell said. Several Massachusetts institutions have seen student visas and statuses revoked. Among them have been: Northeastern University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Boston, Berklee College of Music, Harvard University, Clark University, Bentley University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Three of the nine of those who had their SEVIS records terminated at Tufts University have been returned to active status as of the late morning, according to Patrick Collins, Tufts spokesperson. All reactivated records are F-1 student visa holders who are alumni on post-completion. The institution is continuing to monitor developments, Collins said. Clark University said it is 'cautiously optimistic' about the announcement from the federal government. At the same time, the institution is still 'very concerned about our international students.' 'At this point, it appears that a few of our students' SEVIS records have been reinstated, but not all. We are looking into the details and hope to learn more over the next few days. Our international students are an integral part of our Clark community. We stand firmly committed to their continued success here,' said John LaBrie, dean and associate provost for graduate studies and international programs at Clark. The Office of Global Affairs at UMass Amherst is 'assessing the impact on the UMass community and will advise students on a case-by-case basis as appropriate,' according to Melinda Rose, university spokesperson. Read more: Trump is threatening to block international students from Harvard. Is that legal? There is 'a long way ahead' for international students, said Harvard sophomore Abdullah Shahid Sial, who is from Pakistan. While he is optimistic about the reversal, he said he doesn't know if it will significantly affect Harvard international students. This is because the Department of Homeland Security ordered Harvard to submit detailed records of 'illegal and violent activities' by foreign student visa holders before the end of the month, or it would lose a key certification that allows international students to attend Harvard. About 27% of Harvard's undergraduate and graduate students are international, according to 2024 to 2025 data. " I will definitely take this as a win along the way, a win for international students at large," Shahid Sial said. 'Maybe not for Harvard international students, but it's definitely for international schools at large,' he said. Trump is threatening to block international students from Harvard. Is that legal? Could Trump's crackdown on foreign students exacerbate declining college enrollment? Harvard has a $53 billion endowment. Could it be a weapon in its fight against Trump? Harvard's president to talk stakes of Trump admin's demands in new NBC interview Researchers discover novel bacteria linked to deadly fever in New England ticks Read the original article on MassLive.
