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As he welcomed the graduating students "from down the street, across the country and around the world," Harvard University President Alan Garber got a standing ovation for the last words.
"Around the world — just as it should be," he maintained. The students' applause lasted for nearly a minute, as he mentioned international students who were attending the graduation with their families amid threats from the US government of President Donald Trump.
The standing ovation, which one student told AFP was "revealing of the community's pride and approval."
While graduating students were cheering in the university, a federal judge said on Thursday she would extend an order blocking President Trump's administration from immediately revoking Harvard University's ability to enroll international students, a victory for the Ivy League school that is entangled in multiple battles with the administration.
US District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston announced her intention to issue a preliminary injunction, six days after she first granted Harvard a temporary order blocking the Trump administration's move.
Graduating student Uzma Farheen, from India, obtained a Master of public health and said the day was one of "love for the global community."
"We stand united to powerfully represent what Harvard stands for — truth, integrity, and inclusion," she told AFP.
The Trump administration has launched a multifront attack on the nation's oldest and wealthiest university, freezing billions of dollars in grants and other funding, proposing to end its tax-exempt status and opening an investigation into whether it discriminated against white, Asian, male or straight employees or job applicants.
The university president has acknowledged that Harvard does have issues with anti-Semitism and that it has struggled to ensure that a variety of views can be safely heard on campus.
Garber has led the legal fightback in US academia after Trump targeted several prestigious universities — including Columbia, which made sweeping concessions to the administration, hoping to claw back $400 million of withdrawn federal grants.
