Shock at Harvard after US govt says international students must leave

Just before the Trump administration announced on May 22 that it would bar international students from Harvard University, staff from the university's International Office met graduating seniors at the Kennedy School of Government, congratulating them on their degrees — and on surviving the chaos of recent months.

- Jenna Russell and Miles J. Herszenhorn

WASHINGTON - Just before the Trump administration announced on May 22 that it would bar international students from Harvard University, staff from the university's International Office met graduating seniors at the Kennedy School of Government, congratulating them on their degrees — and on surviving the chaos of recent months.

Then, within minutes of the meeting's end, news alerts lit up the students' phones. Chaos was breaking out again: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had notified Harvard that its permission to enroll international students was revoked.

With that, the degrees and futures of thousands of Harvard students — and an integral piece of the university's identity and culture — were plunged into deep uncertainty.