300 Protesters Rally Against Trump, Garber, and Leadership Changes to University Centers

Roughly 300 protesters marched from the Science Center, down Massachusetts Avenue, and through Widener Gate on Tuesday to protest the University “complying with fascism” and shake-ups at major academic centers on religion and the Middle East.

The march — which was the largest Harvard pro-Palestine rally this year — culminated in a demonstration outside University Hall, where event speakers bashed Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76’s statement in response to the Trump administration’s review of almost $9 billion in federal funds announced on Monday.

“President Garber showed where he stood yesterday,” Clyve Lawrence ’25-’27 said in a rally speech, referencing Garber’s Monday email where he vowed to work with the Trump administration’s task force on antisemitism.

Lawrence, a Crimson Editorial editor, said it represented a “complete capitulation to Donald Trump.”

A University spokesperson declined to comment on Tuesday’s rally, referring to Garber’s Monday email to Harvard affiliates.

While protesters spoke to the crowd outside about censorship of pro-Palestine views, more than 100 professors were gathered inside University Hall for the monthly Faculty of Arts and Sciences faculty meeting. Organizers instructed attendees to chant loud enough for those inside to hear, and handed pamphlets with a list of demands to professors entering the administrative building.

“You’ve probably seen in the last few speeches these faculty scurrying into this FAS meeting,” said Prince A. Williams ’25, a Crimson Editorial editor. “I saw some familiar faces.”

“I saw spineless professors who said nothing when our faces and names were on doxxing trucks,” he added.

While HOOP rallies in the past have narrowly focused on the Israel-Hamas War and calls for Harvard to divest from Israel, the Tuesday rally was mostly aimed at the Trump administration.

Christopher F. Malley, a Ph.D. student in Middle East Studies affiliated with the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, read a statement by a group of graduate students in support of History Professor Rosie Bsheer and Professor of Turkish Studies Cemal Kafadar — the former CMES faculty directors who were dismissed last week.

“Professors Kafadar and Bsheer are the bedrock of the Center,” Malley said. “They are leading scholars in their fields and respected advisers, teachers, and mentors to Ph.D. and master’s students across the University.”

Amid uproar over Interim Harvard Dean of Social Science David M. Cutler ’87’s decision to dismiss Kafadar and Bsheer, the University chapter of the American Association of University Professors alleged in a Monday press release that the two were removed because of a perceived imbalance in CMES programming surrounding Palestine. In the past, CMES events have been the subject of complaints from several Harvard affiliates who alleged that they platformed antisemitism.

“Their dismissal is a shameful act of censorship,” Malley added. “It not only tarnishes the excellence of a long standing academic center at Harvard, but it sets a dangerous precedent for free inquiry across institutions of higher learning in the United States.”

Malley said he and other graduate students across the University would withhold their labor from CMES until Harvard met their demand to reinstate Bsheer and Kafadar. He clarified in an email to The Crimson that the work stoppage applies to instructing CMES courses, advising undergraduates and master’s students affiliated with CMES, and serving as research assistants for faculty affiliated with the center.

“We demand that Harvard, with immediate effect, issue a formal, written apology for their wrongful termination and guarantee the intellectual autonomy of the Center of Middle Eastern Studies,” Malley said at the rally.

Alexandra D. Potter, a Harvard Divinity School student, also condemned HDS’s decision to pause its Religion, Conflict, and Peace Initiative on Monday, which allows students to study specific religious conflicts, including the ongoing War in Gaza.

“It is one of the only programs on campus which presents and funds intellectually honest information about Palestine,” Potter said. “Our school has decided that this program is disposable.”

HDS announced on Friday that it would pause the RCPI program, starting next academic year, in order to “rethink its focus and reimagine its future” as part of a five-year strategic plan initiative. The decision was posted to the school’s website, but not sent directly to HDS affiliates.

Addressing growing calls to defend international students from Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and deportation threats, two protesters read aloud a list of demands to Garber and asked students to sign a HOOP petition.

The demands include refusing to share “student names, disciplinary records, personal information, and registrar data with the Trump administration or other third parties” and denying access to ICE on campus.

They also called on Garber to reinstate Kafadar and Bsheer to their former positions at CMES and to restore the RCPI.

The large protest was attended by a handful of counterprotesters, who blared the U.S. national anthem from three loudspeakers across the plaza as the crowd began chanting outside the Science Center.

They also played an audio tape over a speaker that alleged protesters at Harvard did not start protesting Trump until the government “started limiting Hamas influence on college campuses.”

Despite the noise, Williams proceeded to give a short speech to the protesters around him, condemning ICE arrests of international students and Trump’s decision to dismantle the Department of Education.

“We are sick and tired of this government abducting our friends and family. We are sick and tired of the gutting of public education,” Williams said. “And we are sick and tired of our taxpayer dollars going to murder millions of Palestinians with U.S. laid weapons.”

The protesters then left the plaza and headed toward Mass. Ave., chanting about recent actions taken by the federal government: “We want justice, you say how, free Mahmoud Khalil now.” “We want justice, you say how, free Rumeysa Ozturk now.”

Khalil, who received his master’s degree from Columbia University in December, and Ozturk, a graduate student at Tufts University, are both being held in ICE detention centers in Louisiana.

As the protesters approached the entrance to Harvard Yard, Harvard University Police Department officers and a Securitas guard were in the process of closing the Widener Gate. After the guard told protesters they could not enter through the gate, protesters began pulling out their Harvard University IDs and loudly chanting, “let them in.”

The guard and HUPD officers, seemingly overwhelmed by the large number of people bunched at the gate, allowed protesters to enter as long as they showed their HUIDs. Several non-Harvard affiliates slipped through, joining the protesters inside.

University officials asked multiple reporters and photographers not affiliated with Harvard to leave the Yard during the protest.

—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.