As Harvard University undergraduate seniors donned their robes and caps in the warm blue skies on Tuesday, many didn’t go off to celebrate with their families. Instead, they joined a rally of over a hundred students, faculty and Massachusetts residents organizing against the Trump administration’s attacks on Harvard and its international students.

The rally was in response to the federal government revoking a key certification that allows Harvard to enroll international students. Harvard subsequently sued and asked for a temporary restraining order, which a federal judge allowed.

“The most recent move in President Trump’s attempt to exercise full control over our university is an anti-American threat to our core values of free speech, academic freedom and education,” said Nuriel Vera-DeGraff, a Harvard student.

“We stand here today to affirm that international students are our peers, our classmates and our friends — and not our enemies,” he said.

• Read more: ‘Devastating impact’: Trump’s attacks on Harvard could cost Mass. millions, Healey warns

The rally began with Emil Massad, a graduating senior, playing Bella Ciao, a song of resistance, he said.

Between almost every word of a speaker, the crowd shouted “shame,” pointing to the actions they deem wrongful from the federal administration.

• Read more: Harvard foreign students feel like ‘poker chips,’ consider transfer after Trump attacks

The rally occurred the same day that the Trump administration directed federal agencies to cut off existing contracts with Harvard or transfer them to other vendors.

Also on Tuesday, Crimson Courage, a community of Harvard alumni whose mission is to stand up for academic freedom, organized an online discussion and press conference with speakers like Gov. Maura Healey in attendance.

Throughout each event, Crimson Courage urged alumni to donate to the institution and to sign on to a legal document in support of Harvard’s second lawsuit against the Trump administration focused on international students.

The group is also aiming to have other higher education institutions create an alumni group similar to Crimson Courage.

What has happened at Harvard?

Harvard has been in a battle with the federal government since April. There has been a wave of federal research grant terminations at Harvard University, in addition to a $60 million in multi-year grants,$450 million cut and a $2.2 billion freeze.

U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has also told the institution that the federal government would be barring Harvard University from acquiring new federal grants while the university continues to refuse to comply with the administration’s demands for change on its campus.

Harvard President Alan Garber wrote in a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon that they share the same “common ground,” but the university “will not surrender its core, legally-protected principles out of fear.”

Garber pushed back on the administration through a lawsuit in April. The institution argues that its constitutional rights had been violated by the government‘s threats to pull billions of dollars in funding if the school didn’t comply with demands for an overhaul.Following the $450 million announced cuts, the university amended its lawsuit.

“No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” the suit reads.

Due to the federal cuts, Harvard announced that it was committing $250 million of “central funding” to support research impacted by suspended and canceled federal grants.

A larger attack on democracy

Jacob Miller, a graduating senior who was the president of Harvard Hillel in 2023, spoke to his great-grandmother, who was expelled from the University of Vienna because she was a Jew.

“I stand here before you today at the top university in the world today, watching my peers face removal because of their nationality,” he said.

“If there is anything to learn from this Jewish history, it’s that when we push people out of our schools because of their identity, it’s a symptom of a morally bankrupt politics,” he said.

While he said Harvard has issues with antisemitism, the federal administration’s claims that it is going after Harvard due to that is “absurd.”

Harvard Government Professor Ryan Enos also spoke to the fight against Harvard being about something larger.

He said the attack on Harvard is an attack on democracy and the rule of law. Enos called Trump’s actions an “authoritarian takeover.”

“Each and every one of you is worth fighting for. You each earned your place at Harvard, but we have to understand that this is not just a fight for international students and is not just a fight for Harvard, and it’s certainly not a fight over politics. It’s not a fight between Democrats and Republicans,” he said.

“This is a fight for democracy and for the rule of law. These are the principles that unite us. We are not here to protect our diplomas or to protect Harvard’s endowment. We are here because of an idea in America represented by all of you. That is worth fighting for,” he said.

Harvard first-year students Rachele Chung and Oprah Nkera said they showed up to the rally because their friends who are international didn’t feel safe doing so.

They said there has been a “tension” on campus since they started due to the Trump administration’s attacks on the institution and their friends are in a constant state of confusion and fear about whether to leave the U.S. or stay.

The federal government has shown that there “will be consequences” such as visa or student status revocation if anyone disagrees or goes against the Trump administration, Chung said.

The beginning of organizing

The rally wasn’t just Harvard students and faculty.

Community members of all ages, even those who couldn’t stand throughout the entire rally, showed up in droves and even students from Northeastern University came to show their support.

AB Boudreau, a second-year student at Northeastern, said they haven’t ever been to a rally at Harvard but felt it was necessary to show up because classrooms are better with a diversity of perspectives.

Boudreau, who uses they/them pronouns, said Northeastern has a large international population and they are looking for more ways to connect with other university organizers about the issue.

Harvard alumni have also been organizing their support for the institution through Crimson Courage.

During an online discussion on Tuesday evening following the rally, Cambridge City Councilor Patty Nolan said there has been a “seismic shift” in support for Harvard.

She said Harvard is the largest employer in Cambridge “by far” and that not only alumni but residents and former critics are standing with the institution.

“Does it need improvements? Yes. We need to ask it to be better, not by taking it over, but by holding it to high standards and supporting its work to genuinely embrace inquiry, support all students from around the world. And affirm the primacy of the rule of law,” she said.

“The petty demands and capricious punishment from the federal administration is putting more than Harvard at risk. Our economy and values are at risk,” she said.

Harvard professor John Quakenbush said during the online discussion that his research has lost nearly $1 million in funding at Harvard and early career scientists on his team are having to decide whether to leave academic science or pursue it out of the country.

“The Massachusetts economy is also going to feel the effects through lost research spending and the ripple effects on local businesses,” he said.

“If we truly want to make America healthy. If we want to make America great. I can tell you that this is the wrong path,” he said.

During the rally, Clyve Lawrence, a Harvard student, said that organizing and demonstrating outrage as a community is integral for Harvard to continue taking steps that push against the federal government.

“History doesn’t remember those who sat quietly while democracy was dismantled. They remembered us. The ones who organized the risk takers, the ones who stood up when it mattered most, we are those people. We are that moment and our power is just beginning,” Lawrence said.