Harvard’s graduation ceremony began this Thursday, May 29, 2025 while a Judge analyzes the legality of the punitive measures of US President Donald Trump against the prestigious university, which have left thousands of foreign students in a limbo.
Students and academics dressed in togas and birretes began to congregate against the imposing scenario installed on the campus for this typical event of American universities, which could congregate up to 30,000 people.
Traditionally marked by emotional speeches, the ceremony is held in the middle of a Trump’s unprecedented pressure against Harvard After your decision to prohibit foreign students, that this course They constituted 27% of their students.
It is one of the latest measures of the Republican against One of the most prestigious university in the world, after freezing multimillionaires federal funds and threatening to eliminate tax exemptions.
Unlike other centers, Harvard has resorted to court to leave these measures destined, according to the Government, to combat anti -Semitism and to leave the policies of diversity, equality and inclusion, considered leftist.
The president of Harvard, Alan Garber, very applauded when he arrives at the ceremony, has recognized that Harvard has problems regarding anti -Semitism, although also with Islamophobia, and works to ensure that a variety of opinions can be expressed safely on the campus.
“What baffles is that the measures they have taken to solve these problems do not even affect the people who according to them are the cause of these problems,” NPR’s public radio told Tuesday.
The novelist Abraham Verghese, author of “The Water Pact”, will be the speaker of the ceremony and will receive an honorary title. Before the ceremony, members of the Harvard band, dressed in crimson jackets, they toured The narrow streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts, home from the oldest university in the United States.
Also, students dressed in the regulatory togas toured Cambridge accompanied by their families taking photos, observed correspondents from the Agite France-Presse.
Madeleine Riskin-Kutz, a Franco-American student of classic and languageHe said some students were planning individual protest acts against Trump’s policies.
“The atmosphere (s) that simply continues happily with processions and fanfare is in itself an act of resistance,” said the 22 -year -old.
Legal battle
Unlike other university centers, such as New York Columbia, which folded to the demands of the US government, Harvard has planted Trump in court.
Federal Judge Allison Burroughs, who suspended the measure precautionary, will listen to Trump’s attempts on Boston on Thursday for excluding Harvard from the selection and registration system of foreign students.
Since then, Harvard has been flooded with consultations with foreign students seeking to transfer their enrollment to other institutions, said Maureen Martin, director of university immigration services on Wednesday.
“Many international students and academics are reporting great emotional discomfort that is affecting their mental health and hindering their concentration in their studies,” Martin wrote in a judicial document.
The “Tsar of the Border” Tom Homan, to whom Trump commissioned to orchestrate a large -scale deportation policy, explained on Thursday to journalists in the White House that in the search for people “who need to find” the government takes into account “criminal records, antecedents of immigration, social networkscovert operations, surveillance ”.
“We do not arrest anyone for freedom of expression. I mean, freedom of expression is legal, but there is also a limit for that,” he said.
The basketball star and human rights defender Kareem Abdul-Jabbar compared the response of Harvard’s president to the “illegal and immoral pressures” of the “tyrannical administration” with the icon of civil rights Rosa Parks.
Can you study from abroad virtually?
International students can currently study virtually in Harvard, but there are significant restrictions imposed by the administration of President Donald Trump that affect their participation in academic programs, especially if they wish to obtain a visa to enter or remain in the United States.
Harvard offers online courses through your Harvard Extension School and international students can register in these programs without the need for a visa. However, to obtain a complete title, It is generally required to complete certain courses in personwhich is not currently possible due to visa restrictions. Thus, if the study undertaken is totally virtual can be advanced, but if the cloister announces the face -to -face at some point the student will have difficulties.
Trump has held various conflicts with Harvard, especially because he considers that the cloister is very liberal, open to everything, while he promotes conservative trends. In addition, several of the strongest critics of their administration teach in Harvard.
With information from
