On a cold January night, Jeffery Chen sat in his apartment playing video games instead of heading to the basketball court on campus, as he usually did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chen and his teammate, Shawn Li, were supposed to play their first intramural basketball game of the semester at the University of Minnesota\u2019s Recreation and Wellness Center, but they decided not to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t even think about risking it,\u201d Chen said. \u201cIt was disappointing, but it felt like the right decision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chen and Li said the RecWell would be safe enough, but they still felt uneasy about the building\u2019s proximity to the Graduate Hotel in Stadium Village, where students had been protesting based on rumors that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were staying there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Li said several teammates, all international students, told him they were uncomfortable walking near the hotel during the first weeks of the semester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt just didn\u2019t feel worth it,\u201d Li said. \u201cWe\u2019d rather miss one game than feel uneasy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now that Operation Metro Surge has been formally ended as of Feb. 12, students are returning to the RecWell. However, they look back on that time as an added stress to those affected. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
RecWell Center officials said they definitely felt the lull during the first weeks of the semester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe saw a new low in intramural player turnout during those first couple weeks,\u201d said Maguire Doyle, an intramural sports coordinator and referee at the RecWell. \u201cWe have a lot of international students in our league, and it was sad to see the effect the ICE concerns had on them and on our league as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dominick Kellum, who said he avoided going to the RecWell during the first weeks of the semester, said the disruption was challenging for him and others who rely on the facility as a space to get away after classes to study, socialize and work out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe RecWell is supposed to be a place where students get a break from school life,\u201d Kellum said. \u201cWith the risks people were talking about, a lot of students felt like they lost a piece of their everyday lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Diego Aguirre, a casual lifter, said even non-team workouts felt quieter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou could tell some people just weren\u2019t coming,\u201d Aguirre said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t as packed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Several students agreed that clearer communication from university officials and emails might have eased concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEven just saying they understood why people were worried,\u201d Chen said. \u201cThat would\u2019ve helped.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following the announcement that the surge would be drawn down, Chen and Li eventually returned to intramural play. They walked into the RecWell together, backpacks over their shoulders, and warmed up on the courts as basketballs bounced around them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nice to finally be playing again,\u201d Li said. \u201cIt feels like things are getting back to routine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chen said showing up was important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t want to let fear take over,\u201d he said. \u201cBeing here and playing is one of the best parts of our week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some students changed their routes to the UMN RecWell after ICE was rumored to be staying at the Graduate hotel nearby. On a cold January night, Jeffery Chen sat in his apartment playing video games instead of heading to the basketball court on campus, as he usually did. Chen and his teammate, Shawn Li, were…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[19],"class_list":["post-228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-views"],"authors":[{"term_id":19,"user_id":10,"is_guest":0,"slug":"pet03942","display_name":"Dylan Petersen","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2a43a3fe534269c678f1f77886ebf637b033461a76798a5bdcdf949ec6f8f952?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","first_name":"Dylan","last_name":"Petersen","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228\/revisions\/230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}