{"id":135199,"date":"2025-04-26T20:23:31","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T20:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/harvard-students-and-faculty-face-the-fallout-from-a-showdown-with-trump-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2025-04-26T20:23:31","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T20:23:31","slug":"harvard-students-and-faculty-face-the-fallout-from-a-showdown-with-trump-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/harvard-students-and-faculty-face-the-fallout-from-a-showdown-with-trump-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvard students and faculty face the fallout from a showdown with Trump – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Town halls warning of layoffs. Medical leaves for mental health. Students readying for deportation. These are the grim signs of a campus under siege. But it\u2019s not just any campus. Harvard University, America\u2019s oldest and wealthiest institute of higher learning,\u00a0is at a crossroads as it weathers the Trump administration\u2019s attacks.
Outwardly, the university has become a symbol<\/a> of defiance for refusing to cave to the administration\u2019s demands, but on campus, many say the mood is one of frustration and fear, particularly for international students and faculty. Though reactions to the clash vary, many worry that Harvard will no longer be Harvard if President Donald Trump follows through on his threats.
“Students are unsure whether they can publish, whether they can travel, and wondering whether they can finish their degree,\u201d Jocelyn Viterna, the chair of studies of women, gender and sexuality and a sociology professor at Harvard, said about international students. \u201cI know students are also afraid that they might end up in a Louisiana prison because of something they happen to like once on Facebook.\u201d
Two dozen faculty, students and staff described in interviews this week how their lives have been upended by the showdown. Some faculty are now communicating by Signal, which encrypts and auto-deletes messages, worried that their texts could be shared with the government. Some international students are now walking in groups, for fear of being yanked off the street by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. At a recent university-run webinar, an attorney warned that international visa revocations \u201cpotentially could skyrocket.\u201d
After freezing<\/a> $2.2 billion in funding, the Trump administration has also singled out Harvard in other key ways: It threatened the university\u2019s nonprofit status and its ability to host international students and faculty, who comprise roughly a quarter of the student body and help fuel research in every part of the school.
Some faculty expressed concern that Harvard would no longer be able to attract top talent. \u201cThis is the United States saying to the best and brightest minds around the world that you are not welcome,\u201d said Tarek Masoud, a professor of democracy and governance at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Abdullah Shahid Sial, the undergraduate student body co-president, came to Cambridge from Lahore, Pakistan, hoping to work with the \u201cgreatest professors in the world.\u201d Now, he\u2019s written an op-ed to run in The Harvard Crimson in case he is deported for speaking out. \u201cIf at any point they want me out, then I would rather go in a much more dignified manner,\u201d he said.
One Harvard scientist was detained<\/a> and at\u00a0least 11 other people affiliated with the university have lost their visas in recent weeks, though some were restored<\/a> by the government on Friday.
In an interview Wednesday, two days after the university filed suit<\/a> to try to win back its federal funding,\u00a0Harvard President Alan Garber stood by the school\u2019s decision to take a stand.
\u201cIt\u2019s bigger than Harvard,\u201d Garber told \u201cNBC Nightly News\u201d anchor Lester Holt. \u201cWe are defending what I believe is one of the most important linchpins of the American economy and way of life \u2014 our universities.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0
Harrison Fields, a White House spokesperson, criticized the university\u2019s response. \u201cColleges are hooked on federal cash, and Mr. Garber\u2019s public outburst only fuels the push to shut off the taxpayer money propping up their institution,\u201d he said.
With final exams and graduation now looming, many are bracing for a prolonged battle that could have reverberations for years to come.
Steven Pinker, a well-known psychology professor, co-founded the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard to promote<\/a> \u201cfree inquiry, intellectual diversity and civil discourse.\u201d He agrees with criticism that Harvard needs more viewpoint diversity but thinks the government\u2019s demands go way too far, he said.
Harvard was told, among other demands in an April 11 letter<\/a>, to increase viewpoint diversity among faculty and students (subject to the government\u2019s approval), submit its hiring to a federal audit for more than three years, and use an ideological test on admissions for international students.
\u201cI just don\u2019t think Donald Trump has the statutory power to force his vision of viewpoint diversity on private universities,\u201d Pinker said. \u201cCould that mean that we have to have anti-vaxxers in the medical school? Does it mean we have to have \u2018Stop the Steal\u2019 theorists in the history department? MAGA theorists in political science programs? You just don\u2019t want to give the government the power to make those decisions.\u201d
When Harvard refused to comply, the Trump administration doubled down. In a letter sent April 16, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security demanded that Harvard provide the names of all international students who have \u201cparticipated in protests\u201d and their \u201cdisciplinary records,\u201d with a deadline of April 30, after which it threatened to revoke Harvard\u2019s ability to host international students.
\u201cHarvard values the rule of law and expects all members of our community to comply with University policies and applicable legal standards,” Jason Newton, a Harvard spokesperson, said in a statement. “If federal action is taken against a member of our community, we expect it will be based on clear evidence, follow established legal procedures, and respect the constitutional rights afforded to all individuals.\u201d
Some international students feel caught in the crossfire between Harvard and the Trump administration.
\u201cWe\u2019re being used as poker chips in a battle with the White House,\u201d said Leo Gerd\u00e9n, a senior from Stockholm, Sweden. \u201cNone of us wanted to take this fight.\u201d
Sial, the student body co-president,\u00a0is now working with administrators to ensure summer housing on campus for the increased number of international students planning to bunker down in Cambridge out of fear they\u2019ll be prevented from re-entering the country.
Several other international students spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid threatening their student visa status. They described this moment at Harvard as a doubly difficult: Already under threat of losing their visas<\/a> \u2014 like more than 1,800<\/a> international students and recent graduates reportedly have nationwide, prior to the administration\u2019s reversal this week \u2014 they\u2019re also at the school that Trump is most closely scrutinizing.
One international law student said she won\u2019t walk near protests, has taken down her social media profiles or made them private and looked into finishing her degree abroad. <\/strong>She keeps emergency hotline numbers and her passport with her at all times in case she is approached.
\u201cI have no disciplinary record. I have no criminal record. I have nothing. And I\u2019m a good student,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd, sure, I care about things, but that\u2019s why you come to law school.\u201d
An international environmental studies student <\/strong>said they now plan to leave the country once they finish their degree.
\u201cI\u2019m just trying to protect rivers and waterways and the environment,\u201d they said, \u201cand I don\u2019t feel particularly wanted here.\u201d
They regularly have to visit different states to conduct surveys but say they are now more fearful of travel.
\u201cJust having the Harvard international student label on me,\u201d they said, \u201cit makes me a lot more anxious about being around airports or being around security.\u201d
An undergraduate international student who attended last year\u2019s Harvard encampment<\/a> and got doxed for their pro-Palestinian activism said they moved off campus and stopped attending classes in person for two weeks, triggered by the detention of Tufts University graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk.<\/a>\u00a0They have canceled an academic trip to Europe and skipped out on iftars during Ramadan \u2014 communal meals where Muslims break their fast during the\u00a0Islamic holy month \u2014 worried that ICE might target such gatherings.
\u201cI don\u2019t feel safe at all being around protests and voices, which actually kills me from the inside, because I want to go there, and I want to voice my opinion,\u201d they said.
Though some students applauded Harvard\u2019s stand against Trump, others have mixed feelings about the school\u2019s response thus far.\u00a0
Three students said the university had already acquiesced to some extent, even before the April 11 letter. They pointed to the <\/strong>firing of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies\u2019 faculty heads<\/a>, suspending the Harvard Divinity School\u2019s long-standing Religion, Conflict and Peace Initiative<\/a>, and pausing the School of Public Health\u2019s research partnership<\/a> with a Palestinian university.
Harvard didn\u2019t respond to questions about these concerns. But Masoud, of the Harvard Kennedy School, said he thought those changes would have happened even if Trump hadn\u2019t been elected.
\u201cThe university recognizes that there are certain changes that needed to be made, and will make those changes,\u201d he said, \u201cbut it\u2019s not going to surrender its independence or its First Amendment rights just because the Trump administration thinks that it needs to do more.\u201d
During what has become a weekly\u00a0\u201cknow your rights\u201d\u00a0webinar for international students and staff, hosted by a university-affiliated attorney and an administrator from Harvard\u2019s International Office on Tuesday, nearly 400 questions were submitted, but only a handful were directly answered. One piece of blunt advice they gave international students: Speaking out right now on any topic is much riskier than it would be for American citizens \u2014 or even for students at other schools.
\u201cWe are under the microscope right now, and so we really don\u2019t know how to advise people,\u201d said Jason Corral, a staff attorney with the Harvard Representation Initiative, a legal clinic that provides pro bono support to Harvard. \u201cAre people going to be more scrutinized because they\u2019re Harvard students? It seems like it, given the letter that that we received and that we\u2019re trying to respond to. It gives me pause to even recommend school-sanctioned trips.\u201d
Irene Ameena, a third-year law student who is a member of the Law School\u2019s Justice for Palestine group, said students are defending themselves by organizing trainings on how to respond to potential encounters with ICE, walking around campus in groups and only communicating on encrypted apps.
\u201cThere are really strong mutual aid networks that have formed over the past few weeks,\u201d Ameena said, \u201cto keep each other safe.\u201d
Beyond concerns over international students and free speech, faculty say the federal funding cuts are putting their careers in jeopardy. Though Harvard boasts a stunning $53.2 billion endowment, much of that funding is earmarked<\/a> for specific programs and purposes. That leaves schools that rely heavily on federal funding, like the T.H. Chan School of Public Health, more vulnerable.
At a\u00a0town hall meeting last week,\u00a0Andrea Baccarelli, the school\u2019s dean,\u00a0described a range of measures meant to help offset terminated grants \u2014 from halting new hires and reducing how many Ph.D. students are admitted to cutting back on printers and getting rid of desktop phones.\u00a0Baccarelli and Stephanie Simon, the school\u2019s spokeswoman, spoke about likely layoffs and\u00a0said it will need to diversify its revenue going forward, according to three professors who attended but declined to be named because they didn\u2019t want to speak for the school.
\u201cSchool leadership is working with department chairs and administrative directors to identify strategic priorities and make sustainable budget cuts,\u201d Simon said in a statement to NBC News. \u201cUnfortunately, this will lead to layoffs. We are working to minimize the impact on our outstanding workforce while protecting the heart of our research and educational missions.\u201d
Harvard Medical School leaders provided a similar forecast at a separate town hall, The Harvard Crimson reported<\/a>. Harvard has issued over $1.1 billion in bonds in the past two months<\/a>, hoping to shore up its finances as the battle with the government escalates.
Apart from the financial harm, those cuts have taken an emotional toll.
Brittany Charlton, a public health professor who leads the LGBTQ Health Center of Excellence, said after the National Institutes of Health canceled her grants in March, two members of her research team went on medical leave due to mental health issues stemming from the situation.
\u201cOur funding could come back,\u201d she said. \u201cBut even if it does, irreparable harm has been done.\u201d
Tyler Kingkade is a national reporter for NBC News, based in Los Angeles.
Yasmine Salam is an associate producer with the NBC News Investigative Unit.\u00a0Previously she worked in the London Bureau, covering international stories.
Alexandra Chaidez is an associate producer with the NBC News Investigative Unit
© 2025 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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