In Trump’s Orders, Harvard’s Most International School Sees a Crisis

The Harvard Crimson ^ | 05/26/2025 | Tanya J. Vidhun

[DFG]

At the Harvard Kennedy School, the Trump administration’s attempt to revoke Harvard’s eligibility to enroll international students — temporarily blocked in court — could eliminate nearly 60 percent of the student body.

HKS is Harvard’s most international school, and the proportion of international students there has grown over recent years, reaching a record high of 59 percent in 2024. The announcement that international students might have to transfer or face deportation sent shockwaves across the Kennedy School — as students feared being displaced and faculty worried that the Kennedy School’s identity as a global center for public policy scholarship could hang in the balance.

It’s “like the worst fear that international students had has suddenly become true,” said Magdalena Larreboure Donoso, a Chilean PhD student studying environmental politics at HKS.

When Larreboure was admitted to the Kennedy School, she said, “I called my dad immediately, and then, like six minutes later, probably all of Chile knew that I got into Harvard.”

Now, she faces complete uncertainty over whether she’ll be able to continue her studies in the United States at all.

“There’s not much that we can do right now. There’s no planning that we can do to try to fend for ourselves,” Larreboure said. “This is something that will happen to the whole of Harvard or to no one.”

The mood at the Kennedy School is “pretty cataclysmic,” said Daniel I. Mellow, Laurreboure’s partner, who is studying for his master’s in public administration in international development at HKS.

After Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on Thursday that the administration had revoked Harvard’s Student Exchange and Visitor Program certification, which allows it to enroll international students, Harvard swiftly sued to block the order. A federal judge granted a temporary restraining order within hours.

---

TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS:

[Da Coyote]

Hey Harvord, ISGAS.
I Scarcely Give A S...

Neither does the vast majority of the rest of we Americans who got a good education.

[Lurker]

The Kennedy School of Government should be razed to the ground and its professors driven naked into the wilderness.

L

[edwinland]

Eliminating the so-called “Kennedy” school would be Trump’s greatest achievement.

[Disambiguator]

Ah, the old Nebuchadnezzar treatment.

[9YearLurker]

Maybe we should shut down travel from China altogether.

(Here come China origin story “pandemics” over and over again: https://nypost.com/2025/05/27/us-news/new-covid-19-strain-from-china-that-saw-massive-hospitalizations-spike-spreads-to-us/.)

[reasonisfaith]

Did they factor in that significant people at Harvard either hate America or don’t know what America is?

I’ll say that again: they either hate America or they don’t know what America is.

I give Harvard an F on accuracy and thoroughness of their evaluation of this matter.

[Organic Panic]

” Chilean PhD student studying environmental politics “

Golly. Society’s loss. Another environazi bureacrat.

That Kennedy school should be razed. Every rotten deadly foreign policy disaster has come from thAt wretched place

[electricjack]

Maybe if you stopped teaching hatred of others, mainly Jews, you would not have all this trouble you gave to yourself. Like the old saying goes,” Those who can usually do, and those who can’t TEACH LIES ABOUT OTHERS personally think none of my tax money should go to any higher school or university in our nation. I recall going to the cottage ( My nickname for college), we had a teacher in our English 101 class who tried very hard to indoctrinate us into how bad the Vietnam War was. I politely told her and her foolish husband THIS FACT, WHICH I STILL BELIEVE, WHEN YOU SIGN A TREATY TO HELP OTHER NATIONS, YOU LIVE UP TO IT. IKE KEPT WARNING THE 2 DUMMYCRAT POTUS, “DON’T START A JUNGLE WAR WITH GURRILLAS” AFTER ALL THAT’S HOW WE WON THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION FROM THE BRITS.....

[combat_boots]

Ackman

https://x.com/BillAckman/status/1926871423789781233

[Brian Griffin]

https://studyinthestates.dhs.gov/schools/apply/getting-started-with-sevp-certification

[Brian Griffin]

SEVP’s governing regulations for students and schools

https://www.ice.gov/sevis/schools/reg

[For reference, I haven’t read it]

[wjcsux]

I could care less about the arrogant pricks from Harvard.

[avital2]

didn’t they hire deBlasio? we might be doing foreign countries a favor by not exposing their children to rank incompetents masquerading as leaders.

[Honorary Serb]

When I was a Lutheran, I knew a staff member at the Kennedy School who was a member of our parish.

Later, I knew a Serbian woman who was a student at the Kennedy School and also at the Tufts Fletcher School. I went with her to various events at the Kennedy School. Later, she returned to Serbia and for awhile was an official in the Serbian government.

Once again, Trump administration and Freeper calls to shut down the Kennedy School are misguided. The exceptions are Palestinian students and supporters and communists, who are a minority. The Kennedy School actually helps America to have good and useful contacts with officials of various governments, especially in Europe. Glee over the decline or shutdown of the Kennedy School is grossly off-base.

[ridesthemiles]

I HEARTILY ENDORSE MOVING FUNDS FROM HARVARD TO TRADE SCHOOLS.

MORE PEOPLE WORKING,

LESS BS FROM HARVARD.

[ridesthemiles]

START COLLEGES OVER THERE.

REALLY EASIER THAN CLEANING UP ALL THE RIOT MESSES

[Honorary Serb]

They have universities “over there”. But those “over there” want to come to Harvard—even Serbs who in 1999 got persecuted in Cambridge much worse than Jews!

I was there, so I know.

[Mean Daddy]

Watch Sarah Adams podcasts. Former CIA Targeter and Mid east terrorism expert. She estimates over a 1,000 ISIS members in the US and majority came to the US via legal means like student visas. Flying into South/Central America was too dangerous to cross the Dorian Pass due to drug dealers controlling that area.

[maro]

The K School is mostly an elite networking party. I guess they do some studying, so they can all get on the same page as to what the globalists are saying.