As Harvard graduates gathered on Thursday to embrace commencement rituals, they were surrounded by both beaming family members and visible reminders that the university is embroiled in an existential fight with the Trump administration.

Before the ceremony in Cambridge, Mass., about two dozen people stood in Harvard Square with signs protesting the government and its attacks on the university. In a separate protest about antisemitism, a truck passed outside the ceremony and displayed photos of people labeled “Harvard’s Leading AntiSemites.”

And throughout the morning, small groups of alumni stood at each gate to campus, handing out stickers that read “Crimson Courage,” the name of a new alumni group created to galvanize support for the university.

Mark Dyen, who graduated from Harvard in 1970, said that he has never been prouder to be an alumnus. “Harvard stood up for itself, for us, for higher education and democracy,” he said as he passed out stickers. “And by doing so, it created space for people who are more vulnerable.”

The day of celebration came as the Trump administration continues its crackdown on the university, a broad campaign it has framed as an effort to curb antisemitism at the school. The government has already withdrawn or frozen billions of dollars in federal funding, threatened to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status and sought to block its ability to enroll international students. The university has forcefully resisted, calling the attacks a violation of academic freedom and the First Amendment.

As the commencement exercises began in Cambridge on Thursday under cloudy skies, a federal judge a few miles away in Boston was preparing to hear arguments from lawyers for the university and the federal government. Harvard sued the Trump administration last week, for the second time, over its attempt to prohibit the enrollment of international students.