A U.S. federal judge has extended the temporary suspension of Donald Trump’s effort to prevent Harvard from enrolling international students.SOPHIE PARK/The New York Times News Service
Harvard University can continue to enroll international students after a judge extended a temporary order that blocks a U.S. government effort to revoke its ability to accept students from abroad.
The decision will have implications for hundreds of Canadian students and scholars who are at Harvard or planning to begin new programs this fall.
Many are still anxiously watching the escalating battle between Harvard and the administration of Donald Trump, which has involved the threatened loss of billions of dollars in federal research funding and cast doubt over the future of thousands of international students.
A federal district judge in Massachusetts Thursday extended a temporary restraining order issued last week that allows Harvard to keep its international students while its lawsuit against the U.S. government is heard.
Harvard graduates celebrated commencement on Thursday at a pivotal time for the Ivy League school, cheering speakers who emphasized maintaining a diverse and international student body and standing up for truth in the face of attacks by the Trump administration.
The Associated Press
Harvard sued the Department of Homeland Security last week, saying the decision to revoke its ability to take in international students didn’t follow established rules. Harvard president Alan Garber called the government’s actions “unlawful and unwarranted” and said it was retaliation for Harvard’s refusal to submit to the administration’s assertion of control over its curriculum, faculty and student body.
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DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement Thursday that she would continue to hold Harvard accountable, and added that its actions show it “disdains the American people and takes for granted U.S. taxpayer benefits.”
In a letter sent by the acting immigration and customs enforcement director, Todd Lyons, the government gave Harvard 30 days to respond to allegations that it failed to sufficiently address antisemitism and violence on campus, failed to meet reporting requirements, and co-ordinated with foreign entities including the Chinese Communist Party that raise national-security concerns.
In a court document filed this week, Harvard director of immigration services Maureen Martin said that the revocation notice had prompted profound fear, concern and confusion among faculty and students. She said some international students were afraid to attend their own graduation ceremonies this week, while others have cancelled trips home out of concern they won’t be permitted to re-enter the country.
Canadian Claire Vanderwood was recently accepted to a master’s program in public policy at Harvard and looks forward to starting her studies this fall. She said she was relieved by Thursday’s court decision, but in her view the situation remains unsettled.
Ms. Vanderwood is preparing to leave her job in a few months, but if attending Harvard won’t be possible she’d like to know before her employer hires her replacement. She has also signed a lease to live in student housing. She said she assumes Harvard would refund any rent payments, but the lack of clarity makes it an anxious time.
“All my plans are up in the air right now,” Ms. Vanderwood said. “I’m kind of in denial, because I’m still optimistic. It’s Harvard, it’s so huge.”
According to Harvard’s international office website, approximately 500 to 800 Canadian students and scholars study there in a given year, part of the contingent of roughly 7,000 foreign students and scholars, who make up 20 per cent to 25 per cent of its student body.
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Barry McLoughlin, a Canadian who graduated from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, said the court victory is positive news, but the battle is far from over. The matter concerns all universities, he added.
“This is about the involvement of political administration in research, in the academic curriculum, in the classroom,” Mr. McLoughlin said. “It’s truly a fight for academic independence.”
Mr. McLoughlin has interviewed prospective Harvard applicants from the Ottawa area for roughly 20 years as a volunteer alumnus, he said. He described having a strong reaction to the Trump administration’s “profoundly unfair” decision.
“To think that they would be blocked from the Harvard experience because they’re international students, it’s kind of a shock to the system,” he said. “Harvard has always positioned itself as an international university.”
John Weston, a former Canadian member of Parliament who attended Harvard in the 1980s, said it seems like “folly” for an American administration to attack one of the world’s leading research universities, one that has contributed a great deal to U.S. economic, political and scientific clout.
“Harvard has such soft-power influence around the world through its alumni and current students who are non-Americans,” Mr. Weston said. “It just seems like such a horrible thing to do to individuals, with long-term bridge-burning consequences for the country.”
With a report from Associated Press