Speakers Encourage Graduates To Stand Up For Higher Education at HGSE Convocation

Both student and faculty speakers called on Harvard Graduate School of Education graduates to stand as bulwarks against the federal government’s attacks on higher education at last Wednesday’s convocation.

“Go out into the world, proud of your achievements,” HGSE professor Catherine E. Snow said in her keynote address “Go out, as well, prepared to defend this institution against audacious attacks.”

Snow’s comments came one day before Harvard’s Commencement ceremony — and after a monthslong battle between the Trump administration and Harvard, marked by the withdrawal of billions of dollars in federal funding, attacks against international students, and efforts to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

While Snow said she hoped to deliver an optimistic speech, she said could not ignore “the urgency of addressing the challenges to education, to the academy, that are facing us.”

She said a shift away from truth, accountability, and a “general presupposition of goodwill” in politics posed a challenge for higher education.

“Party politics could be vicious, but even no matter what they said in public, Democrats and Republicans in the House and the Senate ate lunch together,” Snow said. “Scientific misconduct existed, but it was not seen as an excuse to demolish entire structures focused on improving health or education outcomes.”

In previous decades, “antisemitism existed, but it could still be distinguished from legitimate criticism of Israeli government policies,” she said pointedly, garnering cheers from the crowd.

“If you take the last few months into account, it’s really hard to argue that the world is getting better,” Snow said.

In his student address, C. Emmanuel Wright said that he and his classmates leave HGSE “in a moment of uncertainty,” highlighting attacks on DEI programming and free speech on college campuses.

Wright cited a letter from Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, who was detained in a Louisiana immigration facility for pro-palestinian activism, as an example of resisting unfair policies from the federal government.

“Our task now is not to just remember it, but to respond,” Wright said of Khalil’s letter. “There is an overreach — and not just of government, but of fear — and in moments like this, the questions become, ‘Will we fold, or will we rise?’ I say we rise.”

The event adopted a hopeful tone and proceeded as a moment of annual celebration, with the newly-appointed HGSE Dean Nonie K. Lesaux presenting a number of awards to both professors, graduating students, and alumni for contributions towards teaching and education. But the Trump administration’s attacks on Harvard weighed on the ceremony, too.

Snow said she previously thought that “producing life-enhancing and life-saving research was enough to justify” Harvard’s existence and that “the undeniable benefits of constituting a student body that is heterogeneous” would be “obvious to all.”

“I’ve come to realize now how naive we’ve been to assume that the values that Harvard stands for are widely shared,” she said.

But Snow said that the responsibility ultimately lies with Harvard to “communicate our strongest commitment and deepest values in ways that make sense to many of our fellow citizens.”

“We need you, your skills, your commitment, your willingness to speak up, the knowledge you have brought with us from your own corners of the world, and your courageous candor if the world is going to change for the better,” she added.

—Staff writer Ayaan Ahmad can be reached at ayaan.ahmad@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @AyaanAhmad2024.