CAMBRIDGE — Thousands of young scientists and engineers at MIT’s 2025 undergraduate commencement prepared to enter the workforce as political turmoil has upended their fields.
Yet, there was plenty of hope among graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who assembled on the wide Killian Court lawn in the shadow of the Great Dome, that their training had prepared them for whatever this new era for the sciences might throw in their direction.
“Science has always found the best in people, that is what I’m most hopeful for, that we continue to shine through,” said Lia Bu, who is graduating with a degree in chemical engineering and a minor in political science.
Under the Trump administration, funding for scientific research is being slashed, particularly for work supported by National Institutes of Health grants. Medical schools are rescinding admission offers, and universities that have historically supported breakthrough scientific and mathematical innovations are treading cautiously as higher education institutions increasingly find themselves in the administration’s crosshairs.
Before the ceremony, students said they were finding ways to keep a positive attitude about the future of their respective fields, even amid upheaval and uncertainty about the government’s willingness to fund scientific research.
“I think I’m an optimist, so my hope is that this current administration and that these four years are a blip on the radar,” said Emma Zhu, who is graduating with a combined degree in computer science and economics, before the ceremony. “But also I think that realistically it’s going to be a little bit worse than that. No matter what, there is going to be a lot more doubt and fear especially in basic science research, which is foundational for other types of research.”
It was a day for celebrations, albeit ones tempered by uncertainty about the future.
It was also a day for protest.
In the middle of Friday’s ceremony, students erupted in protest over the institute’s decision to bar class president Megha Vemuri, a pro-Palestinian advocate, from the event.
A speech from MIT Chancellor Melissa Nobles was briefly derailed by students’ chants, whose voices could be heard rippling out from the crowd shouting “Let Megha walk!”
The disruption came amid controversy in the MIT community over Nobles’s decision to ban Vemuri after the elected student leader veered from her prepared remarks at a different commencement ceremony a day earlier. From the stage, she expressed support for besieged Palestinians in Gaza, called for MIT to cut ties with Israel, and criticized administrators at the institute.
Vemuri’s criticisms echo the same sentiments from students whose protest of the war in Gaza, in April of last year, took the form of an encampment, which stood outside Kresge Auditorium for more than two weeks before it was disbanded. At the time, MIT officials said the institute’s researchers work with countries around the world, including Israel.
Antisemitism has increased across the country, advocates have documented, since the start of the Israel-Gaza war in 2023. Jewish students have reported feeling unsafe amid the unrest on campuses. Just last week, a young couple who work at the Israeli embassy where shot dead after leaving a reception at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people in the 2023 attack. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed around 54,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
Nobles on Friday was visibly frustrated as students’ chants cut into her speech.
“Excuse me, I respect that you have a message to send but this is not the time or place,” Nobles said over the sound of the protest on Friday. “Today is about our graduates and their families. Please respect them and allow me to continue.”
Supportive applause swelled, and soon after the jeering dissipated.
An MIT spokesperson in a statement said the institute “stands by its decision” to bar Vemuri from campus and said the speech she gave “was not the one that was provided by the speaker in advance.”
Before Friday’s disruption, Nobles in her speech praised students for navigating the difficult days after the onset of the COVID pandemic, when many students were first arriving at the institute.
“There were no manuals on how to reanimate this place. You didn’t flinch,” Nobles said. “You chose MIT because you liked to solve problems and your inner beaver came out to bring the campus back to life to make it a home.”
The ceremony came a day after a commencement address from Hank Green, known for his popular science-focused videos on social media.
Green didn’t mince words about the world MIT students would be inhabiting once they left Killian Court, noting recent threats to science funding, the changing climate, and the disruptive capacity of artificial intelligence.
“What a terribly messy time to be graduating from college,” he said in his prepared remarks. “The attacks on speech, on science, on higher education, on trans rights, on the federal workforce, on the rule of law … they’re coming from inside the house."
But he urged graduates to be kind to one another, to “find joy in an imperfect world,” and to “not forget how special and bizarre it is to get to live a human life.”
Parents, meanwhile, said they were filled with pride about their children’s accomplishments, wherever they might lead them.
Janice Li, who came from California’s Bay Area to see her daughter accept an engineering and computer science degree, said she would support whatever career path she chooses — although she would prefer it if she would pursue science education.
“MIT students have changed the world,” Li said, adding, “We will always think that as a professor you can contribute more to society and the world, because you can educate the smart people.”
This story has been updated.
Spencer Buell can be reached at spencer.buell@globe.com. Follow him @SpencerBuell. Maria Probert can be reached at maria.probert@globe.com.