When Harvard President Alan Garber took the stage at commencement, he was met with cheers. Days earlier, Columbia acting President Claire Shipman was booed.

Over the last two decades, she said, U.S. universities have increasingly recognized the benefits of international exchange, seeing it as a crucial revenue source that subsidizes U.S. students and keeps enrollments up in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

As President Trump intensifies his pressure campaign against Harvard and other American universities, our reporters covering higher education, Douglas Belkin and Sara Randazzo, answered subscriber questions about the administration’s moves.

Harvard and the federal government are locked in a battle that boils down to turning over records on international students. But Harvard says it is also about the First Amendment.

Sebastian Gorka has launched a scathing attack on Harvard University, accusing the institution of "selective enforcement of free speech" principles that "discriminate against conservative and pro-American voices.

President Trump is trying to apply enough pressure to force the university to cave, while Harvard, a nearly 400-year-old institution, is aiming to play a long game against an aging president in his final term.

Harvard University is holding its commencement Thursday at a pivotal moment, when its place as one of the world's leading higher education institutions is under what increasingly seems like existential threats from the Trump administration.