CAMBRIDGE, Mass. >> University professors and students led protests on campuses across the U.S. on Thursday against what they say are broad attacks on higher education, including massive cuts to funding, the expulsion of international students and the stifling of free speech about the war in Gaza.

Demonstrations were held at schools including Harvard, where President Donald Trump’s administration says it will freeze $2.2 billion in grants and contracts and is threatening to revoke the university’s ability to host international students.

Rochelle Sun, a graduate student at Harvard’s Department of Government, said she came to stick up for international students because they’re integral to the school’s mission of pushing “the boundaries of human knowledge.”

“The whole point of me having this education here and for pursuing research at Harvard is to be among the best scholars that exist in the world,” Sun said after the protest in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “And so if they’re not going to be around me, then I’m not going to be able to achieve my goals of being here, either.”

Sun held a sign that read: “I should be writing my dissertation, but I keep having to fight this stupid fascism.”

Nancy Krieger, a professor of social epidemiology in Harvard’s School of Public Health, spoke to the crowd about cuts to programs that are crucial to medical discoveries and monitoring the health of the population.

“We are doing our work to make a better world in which all living on this planet can equitably thrive,” she said.

Krieger said her grant from the National Institutes of Health was terminated in late February because it studied discrimination in health, the kind of research that likely won’t be funded by companies or philanthropies.

“We need to have that money going towards research and academic work and the training and teaching of the next generation that can protect the public’s health,” Krieger said to cheers.

A growing list of higher education institutions have had federal funding targeted by the government in an effort to get the institutions to comply with the Trump administration’s political agenda. The series of threats — and subsequent pauses in funding — to some of the top U.S. universities have become an unprecedented tool for the administration to exert influence on college campuses.

Trump vowed to pursue these federal cuts on the campaign trail last year, saying he would focus on schools that push “critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content.”

Republican officials have also heavily scrutinized universities where Palestinian protests erupted on campus amid the war in Gaza last year, while several Ivy League presidents testified before Congress to discuss antisemitism allegations.

Trump and other officials have accused protesters and others of being “pro-Hamas,” referring to the Palestinian militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Many protesters have said they were speaking out against Israel’s actions in the war.

The U.S. government this year has used its immigration enforcement powers to crack down on international students and scholars who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations or criticized Israel over its military action in Gaza. Some have been taken into custody or deported. Others fled the U.S. after learning their visas had been revoked.

Ronald Cox, a professor of political science and international relations at Florida International University in Miami, said during a small event Thursday that the international students are fearful.

“They don’t know if they could be deported, they don’t know if they can be directed to the El Salvadoran prison,” Cox said. “There’s been no due process. It’s kind of open season on the most vulnerable students.”