Harvard to hold graduation as Trump-linked court battle casts long shadow

Harvard's commencement day will be observed amid a federal court hearing on Trump-era measures targeting the university's foreign student programme, funding, and academic independence

The graduation caps will be flying, bands will be playing, and Harvard Yard will be full of celebration. But behind the joyful scenes, a serious fight over academic freedom will be quietly unfolding. 

As Harvard University prepares for its annual graduation ceremony on Thursday, the celebrations are being shadowed by a high-stakes legal battle. A federal judge is currently reviewing a series of punitive measures imposed by President Donald Trump, which Harvard has challenged in court. 

The university faces multiple actions initiated under Trump’s administration — efforts to bar it from enrolling foreign students, revoke its federal contracts, slash its research grants, and question its tax-exempt status.

 

 

Harvard pushes back against federal pressure

Harvard has taken a firm stance against what it describes as political overreach. It has consistently rebuffed the Trump administration’s attempts to influence its recruitment policies, academic programming, and research agenda. Trump, however, has accused the Ivy League institution of harbouring anti-Semitism and promoting liberal bias. 

“Harvard is treating our country with great disrespect, and all they’re doing is getting in deeper and deeper,” Trump said on Wednesday. 

Harvard President Alan Garber, in an interview with National Public Radio on Tuesday, hinted that he may address the controversy during the ceremony. He acknowledged concerns over anti-Semitism and the challenges of fostering open discourse on campus.

“What is perplexing is the measures that they have taken to address these don’t even hit the same people that they believe are causing the problems,” Garber said.   

 

Harvard vs Trump row: Voices of resistance and support

At Wednesday’s Class Day celebration, NBA legend and civil rights advocate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar addressed the graduating class of 2025. He drew parallels between Harvard’s stand and historical acts of civil disobedience. 

“When a tyrannical administration tried to bully and threaten Harvard to give up their academic freedom and destroy free speech, Alan Garber rejected the illegal and immoral pressures the way Rosa Parks declined,” he said as quoted by AFP. 

Parks’ historic refusal to surrender her bus seat in 1955 sparked a movement that helped dismantle segregation in the US.

Students, too, are responding in their own ways. Madeleine Riskin-Kutz, 22, a classics and linguistics major, said some plan to stage personal acts of protest. “The atmosphere that just continues on joyfully with the processions and the fanfare is in itself an act of resistance,” she said.

 

Legal showdown in Boston

On the same day as the ceremony, Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston is set to hear arguments over Trump-era efforts to strip Harvard of its authority to sponsor international students — a group that comprises 27 per cent of the university’s population. The judge has already paused the policy temporarily. 

Outside Harvard Yard on Wednesday, retired immigration judge Patricia Sheppard joined demonstrators in protest. Wearing a black robe and holding a sign that read “for the rule of law,” she expressed concern over the motivations behind the federal actions. 

“We have to look at why some of these actions have been filed, and it does not seem to me that a president would engage in certain actions as retribution,” Sheppard told AFP.     

 

A graduation like no other

Despite the looming legal challenges, the spirit of celebration endures. Crimson-clad members of the Harvard band paraded through the streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts, where final preparations were underway for the graduation event. 

A large stage stood ready amid a sea of neatly arranged chairs, and the university grounds were closed to the public. Students, clad in black academic robes, walked proudly through campus with their families, posing for photos under the bright spring sun.

 

[With agency inputs]