{"id":74,"date":"2026-02-12T21:42:55","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T21:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/?p=74"},"modified":"2026-03-05T21:13:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T21:13:25","slug":"aubrey-barber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/2026\/02\/12\/aubrey-barber\/","title":{"rendered":"Aubrey Barber: ‘This isn’t normal.’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aubrey Barber is a senior commuter and transfer student at the University of Minnesota studying animal science. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty bubbly, laid back, pretty chill. That hasn\u2019t changed. I\u2019m a college student who works part time to help pay for everyday things to get by with life. I\u2019m from northern Wisconsin. I did two years at a community college there. I got my associates and then wanted to continue to get my bachelor\u2019s, and the U of M had animal science, which is a good prerequisite major to go to vet school. My aunt also lives here so I live with her. She lives in Anoka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was at home \u2014 I was in Wisconsin \u2014 when everything blew. I was nervous coming back to the cities to see what was going on, or to understand what\u2019s been going on. So that was worrying but after the first couple weeks, I\u2019ve sort of gotten used to it. I\u2019ve chilled out. But I don\u2019t like that everything\u2019s going on. I do know that it\u2019s affected a lot of my classmates who have been utilizing the Zoom lectures that the U has offered. But people immediately surrounding me, I don\u2019t see it affecting them as much. Like family and coworkers and stuff, people I see every day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom what I know, I think ICE has changed the Twin Cities community in the school aspects especially, like with the Zooms and how the university has given that opportunity. But I know they\u2019re also stopping that soon, so that\u2019s not amazing for people who still feel threatened by ICE. But that\u2019s mainly it for me. Besides that, I personally haven\u2019t felt much of a change. I feel the same when I go to school. It hasn\u2019t affected what I do. I just go to school in the cities and then I go home outside of the cities. It obviously is an issue but it\u2019s something that I\u2019m not affected by as much living outside of the cities. It\u2019s not as in your face. I feel far away from it, like where the most happens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI transferred to the U as a junior, so this is still an adjustment. I haven\u2019t been here for a super long time like most other seniors. All the changes people are seeing and everything with ICE, I can\u2019t really also see because of where I\u2019m at and being new to the city. But with everything I\u2019ve heard and the news, I know that this isn\u2019t normal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interview by Eleanor Steffen<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aubrey Barber is a senior commuter and transfer student at the University of Minnesota studying animal science.  \u201cI\u2019m pretty bubbly, laid back, pretty chill. That hasn\u2019t changed. I\u2019m a college student who works part time to help pay for everyday things to get by with life. I\u2019m from northern Wisconsin. I did two years at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":75,"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":[3],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[20],"class_list":["post-74","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-voices"],"authors":[{"term_id":20,"user_id":11,"is_guest":0,"slug":"steff661","display_name":"Eleanor Steffen","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4591e9b3a7a7907537e14d7eb1cff06ec23deb4e30b101c2437a2d757c238cae?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","first_name":"Eleanor","last_name":"Steffen","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74","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\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions\/98"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}