{shortcode-83cdd11ad1d0339ff16c798ad0d90ff76dc8cd84}

After a few brief weeks celebrating Harvard’s decision to resist the Trump administration’s federal funding conditions, more than 80 students and faculty went back to protesting the University on Tuesday, rallying against the decision to end affinity celebrations in the Science Center Plaza.

In speeches, organizers said the decision to eliminate affinity celebrations undermined Harvard’s vow of resistance, and warned that providing the Department of Homeland Security requested information about international students would be repeating the same mistake.

Harvard has until Wednesday to respond to an April 16 letter from the DHS, which threatened to revoke the University’s ability to host international students unless they share information about their protest participation and disciplinary records.

The demands in the letter include information regarding each visa holder’s “known deprivation of rights of other classmates” and “obstruction of the school’s learning environment,” along with any disciplinary actions “taken as a result of making threats to other students or populations or participating in protests.”

The rally was organized by Harvard Students for Freedom, an unrecognized student group formed earlier this month to protect international students from deportation and call on Harvard to reject Trump administration demands “that hinder the Veritas-seeking mission of the University.”

Leo Gerdén ’25, an international student from Sweden, said in a speech on Tuesday that the group would address “two pressing issues”: Harvard’s decision to stop providing support for affinity group celebrations during Commencement and its looming deadline to answer the DHS letter.

Caleb N. Thompson ’27, who recently began his term as co-president of the Harvard Undergraduate Association, urged Harvard’s highest leadership not to hand over international students’ records to the DHS.

“To President Garber and the Harvard administration, my message is this: you have a choice. The deadline is tomorrow. All of us students have made our voice very clear. We do not want you to send these records to the Department of Homeland Security. Let that be loud and clear,” Thompson said.

Administrators, including College Dean Rakesh Khurana, have declined to say whether the University will comply with the DHS demands.

While Thompson and several other speakers praised Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 for fighting April demands sent by the Trump administration to vet faculty hiring for ideology, they said they felt betrayed by the University’s decision to cancel affinity celebrations.

Victor E. Flores ’25, a former Harvard College Democrats president who is active in Latino groups on campus, labeled Harvard’s decision to stop support for the events as a capitulation to the Trump administration.

“When Harvard says we want you to feel that you belong, but we’re going to get rid of a decades-long tradition that celebrates your achievements and those of your family all in the same breath, we know it’s nothing more than false promises and a willingness to capitulate to these un-American attacks by the Trump administration,” Flores said.

A University spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment for this article.

While the Community and Campus Life office, formerly the Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion before it was renamed on Monday, did not offer an explanation for the decision, it addressed a direct demand of the Department of Education, which circulated a Dear Colleague letter in February threatening federal funding if Harvard did not cancel graduation ceremonies that could separate students based on race.

Flores said the Latinx affinity group would still hold a graduation celebration this year — even if the University would not support it.

“Harvard may not be willing to give us space. That’s fine. It’s not surprising, but we will take up the space owed to us and to our communities while making it a party to remember anyway,” he said.

HUA co-president Abdullah Shahid Sial ’27 said the HUA would try to advocate for affinity group ceremonies to take place on campus anyway.

“You have our word from our side that we’ll do our absolute best to create avenues for affinity group celebrations to still happen on campus,” Sial said.

During the rally, several event speakers also took direct shots at the Trump administration, arguing the funding cuts and records requests were examples of illegal overreach.

Tova L. Kaplan ’26 and Maia J. Hoffenberg ’26, two Jewish students, said the Trump administration’s attacks on Harvard were unrelated to protecting Jewish students.

“When the Trump administration mistakenly sends a letter on April 11 demanding ideological loyalty tests, mass surveillance of campuses, and the policing of foreign students, it is unmistakable. This is not about protecting Jews,” Hoffenberg said.

Kaplan said international Jewish students on Harvard’s campus feel “actively threatened.”

“I can’t count the number of Jewish students who have felt at risk by this environment — international Jewish students who are worried and actively threatened when their visas are at risk,” she said.

Cornell William Brooks, a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, who was president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People from 2014-2017, said he felt obligated to participate in the protest.

“I’m here because I have to be here,” he said. “I have to be at your side when you decided to take on this administration and these constitutionally and morally wrongheaded policies.”

Brooks also said Harvard must stand for DEI in the wake of its Monday announcement that it had renamed OEDIB to “Community and Campus Life.”

“We have the administration that has persuaded wise minds to rebrand and rename offices dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion,” Brooks said. “As though diversity is somehow wrong. As though inclusion was somehow wrong. As though equity were somehow wrong.”

“There can be no progress without struggle,” he added. “So when Harvard consults with their lawyers, when Harvard has to make a decision, we struggle and we struggle together.”

—Staff writer Samuel A. Church can be reached at samuel.church@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @samuelachurch.

—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @camsrivastava.