Pakistan(National Times)- CAMBRIDGE: A US court has stopped President Donald Trump\u2019s attempt to stop Harvard University from accepting international students.\u00a0 The judge said foreign students should be protected while the legal fight continues. This comes as Trump continues to pressure top universities over what he calls political bias. Thousands of Harvard students in crimson-trimmed gowns celebrated their graduation on Thursday. Trump has made Harvard the central target of his campaign against elite US universities, which he has also threatened with funding freezes over what he claims is liberal bias and anti-Semitism. Judge Allison Burroughs said she would later issue a preliminary injunction that \u201cgives some protection\u201d to international students while the two sides argue over the legality of Trump\u2019s position. \u201cOur students are terrified, and we\u2019re already having people transfer to other universities,\u201d Harvard\u2019s lawyer Ian Gershengorn said during the hearing in Boston. In an eleventh-hour filing before the hearing, the Trump administration issued a formal notice of intent to withdraw Harvard\u2019s ability to enrol foreign students \u2013 triggering the official process. The filing gave Harvard 30 days to produce evidence explaining why it should not be blocked from hosting and enrolling international students \u2013 who currently make up 27 per cent of Harvard\u2019s student body. Burroughs had already temporarily halted the policy and extended that pause on Thursday, pending the new injunction. She said she would examine whether Trump officials had acted with \u201ca retaliatory motive.\u201d A law professor in the packed courtroom said the Trump administration was prolonging the suffering of students. \u201cHarvard is in this purgatory. What is an international student to do?\u201d said the Harvard Law School graduate, who declined to be named.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There remained \u201cthis spectre of other actions\u201d the government could still take to block Harvard from hosting international students, the judge added. The Ivy League institution has continually drawn Trump\u2019s ire while publicly rejecting his administration\u2019s repeated demands to surrender control over recruitment, curricula, and research priorities. \u201cHarvard is treating our country with great disrespect, and all they\u2019re doing is getting in deeper and deeper,\u201d Trump said on Wednesday. Harvard President Alan Garber received a huge cheer when he acknowledged international students attending the graduation with their families, calling it \u201cas it should be.\u201d He did not mention the Trump dispute directly. Garber received a standing ovation, which one student told AFP was \u201crevealing of the community\u2019s pride and approval.\u201d He has led the legal resistance within US academia after Trump targeted several prestigious universities \u2013 including Columbia, which made sweeping concessions to the administration in an effort to recover $400 million in withdrawn federal grants. Garber has acknowledged that Harvard faces challenges with anti-Semitism and with fostering a climate where a diversity of views can be freely expressed. Graduating student Uzma Farheen, from India, who earned a Master of Public Health, said the day was one of \u201clove for the global community.\u201d \u201cWe stand united to powerfully represent what Harvard stands for \u2013 truth, integrity, and inclusion,\u201d she told AFP. Before the ceremony \u2013 where stage and screen legend Rita Moreno received an honorary degree \u2013 members of the Harvard band in crimson blazers marched through the narrow streets of Cambridge. Hundreds of students gathered in front of a large stage to hear speeches \u2013 including one entirely in Latin \u2013 within a grassy area closed off to the public for security reasons. Many students from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government carried inflatable plastic globes during the ceremony to symbolise the international character of the school. \u201cIn the last two months, it\u2019s been very difficult. I\u2019ve felt extremely vulnerable,\u201d said Lorena Mejia, 36, a Colombian graduate who earned a Master in Public Administration and proudly wore robes identifying her nationality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pakistan(National Times)- CAMBRIDGE: A US court has stopped President Donald Trump\u2019s attempt to stop Harvard University from accepting international students.\u00a0 The judge said foreign students should be protected while the legal fight continues. This comes as Trump continues to pressure top universities over what he calls political bias. Thousands of Harvard students in crimson-trimmed gowns […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n