For three weeks, while Operation Metro Surge was in full swing, faculty at the University of Minnesota dug into the task of keeping students safe from potential U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) encounters. Alongside this effort, their mission to take care of educational responsibilities continued. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now that classes have returned to normal, how do faculty reflect on that time? We asked a few. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regina McCombs is a senior lecturer at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication. In collaboration with the school, she\u2019s focused her efforts on providing students with the necessary information to stay safe while reporting in potentially dangerous environments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOne of the things we did before the semester even started was get together and talk about keeping students safe, especially if they wanted to go out and cover the protests or any of the things happening,\u201d McCombs said. \u201cWe’d never done that before. We developed a whole safety protocol sheet.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
McCombs also led four photographers from the Minnesota Daily through Hostile Environment and First Aid (HEFA) training. This experience, she said, was a vital but unsettling learning experience for everyone involved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s different having students go through that and watching them learn about tourniquets and bullet wounds and all of these other potential things that the training is useful for,\u201d McCombs said. \u201cBut it’s also, I think, a little off-putting to realize they might need to know something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For McCombs, faculty support helped relieve early-semester stress \u2014 even something as simple as sitting down and chatting with someone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt certainly feels more supportive,\u201d McCombs said. \u201cI feel like people are kind of pulling together, pulling in the same direction.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the semester resumed, instructors for many departments had to make last-minute changes to class logistics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Communication studies Professor Zornitsa Keremidchieva started the semester with hybrid instruction. These changes reminded her of teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was challenging yet ultimately meaningful, she said<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was kind of a reminder about the variety of diverse students that we have and the different needs and communities that we pull into the space of the University,\u201d Keremidchieva said. \u201cSo in that sense, it was a good moment of reconnection.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Psychology professor Andrew Oxenham said he found the modality adjustments stressful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m concerned for our international students,\u201d Oxenham said, noting that those students bring important experience and insights to campus. \u201cClearly, this is not a way to make them feel welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said the psychology department has continued to focus on ensuring that faculty and advisers could communicate with students who needed support and guidance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf anything happens, we can reach them quickly, and they can reach out quickly,\u201d Oxenham said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a foreign-born faculty member, Keremidchieva had to balance keeping herself and her family safe while also teaching and supporting her students. She added that this was the first semester in which her background became an important topic in the classroom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have had to field more questions about where I’m from,\u201d Keremidchieva said. \u201cThat brings a certain vulnerability. So I have had to manage those things.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite potential risks, Keremidchieva said she remained committed to being there for her students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI did not stay home,\u201d Keremidchieva said. \u201cI came to campus every day regardless. I had a child who had to go into online school, so the situation impacted obviously my entire family.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She also stressed the importance of giving her students a space to process recent events and the tense political climate nationwide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think developmentally, this was their first political clash,\u201d Keremidchieva said. \u201cIt was important for them to feel respected and to be given the breathing room to make sense of it all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The spring semester forced faculty to balance student safety concerns with\u00a0 teaching responsibilities in a way they hadn\u2019t seen since the pandemic. For three weeks, while Operation Metro Surge was in full swing, faculty at the University of Minnesota dug into the task of keeping students safe from potential U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":271,"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":[21],"class_list":["post-259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-views"],"authors":[{"term_id":21,"user_id":12,"is_guest":0,"slug":"venel004","display_name":"Jordan Venell","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/efc1d37e25760860f336000044619e7f2c6399c292d72275255d6225aceb05a2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","first_name":"Jordan","last_name":"Venell","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":260,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions\/260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}