Harvard’s commencement Thursday was defiant and celebratory, with speakers stressing the values of diversity and truth amid the school’s legal battles with the Trump administration.
Dr. Abraham Verghese, a Stanford professor, author and infectious disease physician who was this year’s commencement speaker, began by acknowledging the “unprecedented moment for Harvard University in this institution’s almost four-century existence.”
The commencement came just days after a senior Trump official told NBC News on Tuesday that the administration intends to ask all federal agencies to find ways to end their contracts with the school. The move would result in an estimated $100 million in cuts at the university and is the latest in tense sparring between the administration and the Ivy League institution.
Verghese said that when he was asked to speak at the school’s 374th commencement, he felt the graduating class deserved to hear from a Nobel Prize winner or the pope. But what made him agree to address the crowd of some 30,000 people Thursday morning, he said, “had everything to do with where we all find ourselves in 2025.”
“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,” he said to raucous applause.
“Part of what makes America great, if I may use that phrase, is that it allows an immigrant like me to blossom here, just as generations of other immigrants and their children have flourished and contributed in every walk of life, working to keep America great,” he said, in a reference to President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan.
“The greatness of America, the greatness of Harvard, is reflected in the fact that someone like me could be invited to speak to you,” Verghese said.
For months the Trump administration has gone after higher education institutions, Harvard in particular.
In April, the school announced that it was rejecting a list of 10 demands the administration said the university needed to make to address antisemitism. The requirements included banning international students who are “hostile to the American values and institutions.” As a result of Harvard’s noncompliance, the administration said it was freezing more than $2 billion in grants, leading Harvard to hit back with a lawsuit.
The school waged another lawsuit against the administration last week after the federal government said it would revoke the university’s ability to enroll foreign students. On Friday, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order, blocking the Department of Homeland Security from implementing the policy.
Murmurs and some cheers were heard at commencement Thursday after a federal judge extended a temporary order blocking the Trump administration’s revocation of Harvard’s ability to enroll international students.
Verghese told students in his commencement address Thursday: “No recent events can diminish what each of you has accomplished here, graduates. I also want you to know you have the admiration and the good wishes of so many beyond Harvard, more people than you realize.”
“A cascade of draconian government measures has already led to so much uncertainty, so much pain and suffering in this country and across the globe, and more has been threatened,” he said. “The outrage you must feel, the outrage so many feel, must surely lead us to a new appreciation for the rule of law and due process, which till now we took for granted, because this is America.”
Harvard President Alan Garber did not address the clash with the administration as openly, but received a loud ovation immediately upon welcoming the class of 2025 Thursday morning, and an even louder ovation when he welcomed “students from around the world, just as it should be.”
Several graduating speakers also spoke to the values of diversity.
Yurong “Luanna” Jiang, who is from China, said when she grew up, she believed the “world was becoming a small village.”
“I remember being told, we will be the first generation to end hunger and poverty for humankind,” she said.
Jiang, who studied international development, said her program was built on the “beautiful vision that humanity rises and falls as one.”
“We’re starting to believe those who think differently, vote differently or pray differently, whether they are across the ocean or sitting right next to us, are not just wrong, we mistakenly see them as evil,” she said. “But it doesn’t have to be this way.”
Harvard’s battles against the Trump administration have drawn praise from many prominent figures. On Wednesday during a graduating class ceremony, Los Angeles Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said in a speech that he was moved by the school’s opposition to the administration.
“After seeing so many towering 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,” he said.
The sense of unity came in contrast to last year’s graduation at Harvard College, the undergraduate school, when hundreds staged a walkout to decry the disqualification of 13 students who had been involved in protests against the war in Gaza.
This year, The Associated Press reported, protesters held a silent vigil a few hours before the ceremony, holding signs that read “Ceasefire Now” and “Not Another Bomb.”
