"I felt you deserved to hear from a star, a legend, a Nobel prize winner, or perhaps, God knows, from the pope himself... Maybe next year?" Laughter rippled through the crowd of thousands gathered on Harvard's lawn on Thursday, May 29. Abraham Verghese may not have the renown of his illustrious predecessors – Barack Obama, Angela Merkel, Tom Hanks, Mark Zuckerberg, or Steven Spielberg – all chosen in the past to deliver the university's famed annual commencement address.

But in 2025, a year marked by attacks from the Trump administration against the campus, who better to fill this role than a doctor, a Stanford professor, a writer, born in Ethiopia to Indian parents, who arrived in America in the 1980s as a foreign student. "When legal immigrants and others who are lawfully in this country worry about being wrongly detained and even deported, perhaps it’s fitting that you hear from an immigrant like me."

Since Tuesday, Harvard University has been living to the rhythm of commencement ceremonies, the graduation ritual whose origins date back to the 17^th century. They began with a parade of about 9,000 graduates. Many wore, in addition to the traditional black cap and gown, sashes bearing the colors of their home countries. The sight of this colorful crowd made clear what the potential loss of international students would mean for the university.

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