Harvard University students wearing graduation gowns walk through Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Thursday, May 29, 2025. Credit – Mel Musto—Bloomberg/Getty Images
A federal judge on Thursday extended a court order blocking the Trump Administration’s attempt to bar Harvard from enrolling international students as the effort elicited protests at the university’s commencement ceremony.
Many students and faculty members demonstrated their support for Harvard’s international students—who make up roughly 16% of its 2025 class—by wearing white flowers or stickers reading “Without our international students, Harvard is not Harvard” over their regalia at the Thursday ceremony. Speakers across the commencement events added their voices to that support, and praised Harvard’s president Alan Garber for refusing to accede to demands from the Administration.
“When a tyrannical administration tried to bully and threaten Harvard, to revoke their academic freedom and to destroy free speech, Dr. Alan Garber rejected the illegal and immoral pressures,” basketball player and social justice advocate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said while speaking to graduates on Wednesday. “After 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 U.S. Constitution, it is inspiring to me to see Harvard University take a stand for freedom.”
The support comes amid a tense battle between Harvard and President Donald Trump that has seen the Administration move to strip the university of federal funding and revoke its ability to enroll international students after it rejected demands related in large part to its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized the judge’s decision to block the Administration from barring Harvard’s enrollment of foreign students at a Thursday press briefing.
“Secretary of State Rubio has simply used his authority to revoke those visas, to revoke that privilege, and we’ve seen the courts try to block that,” Leavitt said. “So if these judges want to be Secretary of State or they want to be the President, they can run for office themselves. It should be the other way around, but all of the actions the President has taken rely on legal authorities that have already been granted by our nation.”
Harvard has mounted multiple legal challenges against the Trump Administration’s actions, and Garber has indicated the university has no plans to back down.
The university president was welcomed with resounding applause and a standing ovation when he took the stage to speak at the Thursday commencement ceremony. “Members of the class of 2025 from down the street, across the country, and around the world, around the world, just as it should be,” Garber said in an allusion to the ongoing battle, though he stopped short of directly mentioning Trump.
Harvard Kennedy School graduate Yurong Jiang, an international student, praised the diversity at the university, saying it made “global challenges” feel “personal.” Other student speakers, including Thor Reimann, pointed to the leadership Harvard has shown throughout history. “Our University is certainly imperfect, but I am proud to stand today alongside our graduating class, our faculty, and our president, with the shared conviction that this ongoing project of veritas is one worth defending,” he said.
In the keynote commencement address, physician and bestselling author Abraham Vergese made reference to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan as he voiced his own support for Harvard’s international students and America’s immigrants more broadly.
“When legal immigrants and others who are lawfully in this country, including so many of your international students, worry about being wrongly detained and even deported, perhaps it’s fitting that you hear from an immigrant like me,” Verghese said.
“The greatness of America, the greatness of Harvard, is reflected in the fact that someone like me could be invited to speak to you.”
—Nik Popli contributed reporting.
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