{"id":31155,"date":"2026-03-13T15:34:47","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T15:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/?p=31155"},"modified":"2026-03-29T02:39:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T02:39:19","slug":"care-in-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/2026\/03\/care-in-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Care in Community"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: This story went to press in mid-February, in the midst of the ongoing and unprecedented surge in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity this winter in Minnesota. While circumstances continue to evolve, this article features stories of how Macalester community members are showing up, through acts of care that define who we are.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leah Hood \u201905 stood outside Green Central Elementary in Minneapolis. Her Macalester stocking cap purposely chosen for this moment, she wasn\u2019t there to pick up a child. Instead, she was there to watch, scanning the street for unmarked immigration enforcement vehicles, providing an extra layer of support as the school day ended and students began their journey home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI cannot stop our families from being targeted, but I can help them to see and understand that they are not alone, that people care about them,\u201d Hood says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miles away, Adrienne Christiansen, professor emerita of political science at Macalester, sat on a street corner in downtown Minneapolis. Just weeks after foot surgery, she\u2019d been ordered by her doctor to stay off her feet. She was obeying those orders, but as thousands of demonstrators marched past her apartment, she simply could not stay inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI needed to be there,\u201d Christiansen says. \u201cI cannot march right now, but by God, I can cheer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back on campus in St. Paul, Macalester students had recently returned from winter break, and were already hard at work organizing. Group chats coordinated rides, grocery deliveries, and support for classmates who didn\u2019t feel safe leaving their homes. Posters advertised help with errands. Walking patrols were formed for Scots to escort their peers to class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collectively, these acts, varied in scale, represent the Macalester community\u2019s response to an unprecedented crisis: turmoil unleashed in the Twin Cities by a surge in federal law enforcement. Over many weeks, Minnesotans have witnessed disturbing scenes, including the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of agents working for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and US Customs and Border Protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mobilizing in the face of violence and injustice, Mac alumni, students, staff, and faculty have joined a broader movement across the Twin Cities, showing up at school gates, street corners, in grocery aisles, and behind the wheel. Beyond Minnesota, they have sent words of affirmation, opened their wallets, and reached out to their representatives in Congress. Together, their acts have helped create a network of care, work that the Macalester community hopes will contribute to a more just and peaceful world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Standing watch<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For Hood, an educator, the work has taken many forms. Beyond her school patrols at elementary schools, she\u2019s collected $4,000 for neighbors from friends and fellow alums. She\u2019s delivered groceries to students sheltering in place. And she\u2019s driven people to work when they didn\u2019t feel safe driving on their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy students are literally in hiding, and they\u2019re trusting me with their address, their locations,\u201d Hood says. \u201cIt feels like an honor. And it feels like a heavy responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Leah Hood \u201905 outside a Minneapolis elementary school.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hood traces that responsibility back to her time at Macalester. \u201cThe commitment to global citizenship and social justice that Macalester has always espoused was definitely nurtured in me,\u201d she says. \u201cThe people I attended Macalester with are still to this day the smartest, bravest, most outspoken, most giving, fiercely compassionate human beings in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That compassion is visible in a Minnesota Mac group chat that\u2019s been \u201cextremely active\u201d in recent weeks. When Hood needed winter clothes for a student\u2019s child, she posted the request. Within minutes, alumni responded: \u201cI got you. Pick it up whenever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a local church needed boxes for grocery deliveries, the Mac chat group fulfilled the request in minutes. \u201cThe activism and generosity and commitment to community service that Macalester grads have is really second to none.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protesting as Care<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

From her 15th floor apartment, Adrienne Christiansen has had a birds-eye view of the many Minneapolis protests held in response to the federal law enforcement surge. And on multiple occasions, she\u2019s rolled herself down to the street corner to cheer them on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So determined in her haste to make it to the street, she hasn\u2019t always worn the warmest of clothes. During one protest, with temperatures hovering around nine below zero, a woman left the march and placed her own knit cap on Christiansen\u2019s head. Other protestors repeatedly approached her with hand warmers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was absolutely floored by that human kindness,\u201d she says. \u201cIt felt a bit like Halloween, except instead of candy, I came home with hope and pockets full of hand warmers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2017, the political science professor took Macalester students and staff to Washington, DC, for the Women\u2019s March. Gathering together to march and protest, she argues, is a critical act of community care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you see 50,000 people gather in your town to say, \u2018no, this is wrong,\u2019 all of a sudden the sense of isolation disappears. You realize that other people also care deeply about you,\u201d Christiansen says. \u201cAnd now, with ICE being here like an occupying force, to show up is quite literally to say: \u2018Even at the risk of being knocked down or pistol whipped or arrested, I\u2019ll take that risk to show my care.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gathering together<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Reverend Dr. Hannah Adams Ingram, college chaplain and associate dean for Institutional Equity, began working at Macalester last summer. She chose Macalester because of the college\u2019s commitment to create change, honor diversity in backgrounds and viewpoints, and respect all community members. Just months into her tenure, she has witnessed Scots live out those values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople are trying to take to heart that community togetherness is the antidote to the kind of violence that festers when we don\u2019t know each other well,\u201d Adams Ingram says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chaplain helped organize campus vigils in response to the deaths of Good and Pretti. The chance to gather, mourn, and reflect as neighbors, Adams Ingram says, offers people the opportunity to start seeing a path forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSometimes \u2018thoughts and prayers\u2019 get a bad rap, but it\u2019s when we come together in these moments, when we pull together in reflection and are inspired by one another, we remember that we\u2019re not alone,\u201d Adams Ingram says. \u201cAnd it\u2019s there, when we quiet the panic, we can access deep wisdom, not just in ourselves, but with each other to figure out what to do next.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All around Macalester, Adams Ingram has watched strangers gathering for impromptu acts of care: Students walking each other home. Neighbors arranging potlucks. And Minnesotans meeting over a lit candle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou never like to see crisis or tragedy be what spurs us to action,\u201d Adams Ingram says. \u201cBut it has spurred us to action, and now we\u2019re seeing people take care of one another, try to connect with one another, and I\u2019m really excited to see where that could go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sustaining the work<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Carlos Mariani Rosa \u201979 has helped organize support for schools across Minnesota. The former Minnesota state representative, who now serves as executive director of the Minnesota Education Equity Partnership, has developed training materials for educators on how to respond to the federal law enforcement surge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur ability to run public schools and to be a community in Minnesota has been threatened, but we\u2019re not giving up. Minnesotans are acting,\u201d says Mariani Rosa, who has watched volunteers teaching students in homes, arranging food drives, and showing up for countless school patrols. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just remarkable what folks are doing in terms of stepping up and putting their lives on the line, giving their time and resources to protect their neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While inspired by those actions, he encourages anyone looking to get involved to first reflect on their motivations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to reflect, because that gives you the deep will to make sure this isn\u2019t a one-off kind of thing,\u201d Mariani Rosa says. \u201cInstead, what will be required to make lasting change is community building and forming deep relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Safe passage<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As students prepared to return for spring semester, news outlets reported that rideshare drivers felt unsafe, due to the presence of ICE agents, picking up passengers at Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. The college\u2019s leadership team faced a dilemma: how would hundreds of students get back to campus?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It didn\u2019t take long before the college\u2019s van pool was identified as a solution. Student Affairs booked the fleet for two days straight, and within minutes, faculty and staff had filled about fifty volunteer shifts to drive the shuttles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur Macalester community was just clamoring to help,\u201d Tom Halverson, dean of the faculty, says. \u201cIt was almost like people wanted to do more than we could offer.\u201d Ultimately, thirty faculty and staff members helped transport nearly two hundred students to campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a community that\u2019s deeply involved in the Twin Cities and especially wants to care for the people on our campus,\u201d Halverson says. \u201cAnd I think we sent a strong message to everyone watching\u2014this is the kind of place Macalester is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That message was amplified this January by significant donations from the global Mac community. More than 300 people have donated $55,000 to support Mac\u2019s community members through the Open Pantry and the International Student Support Fund. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Finding your lane<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Contributing in this time of crisis has rarely looked the same from one Scot to another. Some have taken to the streets. Others have worked behind the scenes. All contribute meaningfully to the common good, according to President Suzanne Rivera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe all have to pick our own swim lane,\u201d Rivera says. \u201cWhere\u2019s the place that we can have impact that feels right to us given our own personal level of risk and what assets we can bring to the table? Everybody has a different point of entry to this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Duchess Harris, who chairs Mac\u2019s History Department, has been watching the current turmoil with an eye on the past. In early January, she called on Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to deploy the National Guard to ensure students could safely attend school\u2014an action that echoes how troops were used to desegregate Arkansas schools decades ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harris believes Minnesotans and their neighbors should feel empowered to contribute in a multitude of ways to protect American democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen community members believe that government actors are acting outside of the law, there are accountability mechanisms,\u201d Harris says. \u201cAccountability is not only legal, it\u2019s democratic. Public protest, legislative pressure, media scrutiny, and sustained civic engagement\u2014those are not failures of the system. They are responses to its limits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty \u201986, the work has meant relying on the community in unprecedented ways. When her office was denied access to evidence by federal investigators in the killings of Good and Pretti, Moriarty created a public portal asking residents to submit videos and information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think this was first of its kind, maybe in the country,\u201d Moriarty says. \u201cWe\u2019ve received lots of information that\u2019s been extraordinarily helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Moriarty works to ensure justice is still served in a time of turmoil, she is motivated each day by the care she sees across the state. \u201cWe can stand up, we can stick together, we can care for each other, and we can speak out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The path forward<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Hope can be hard to find in the midst of a crisis. But care in community, these Scots believe, will light the way to a brighter future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCrisis points lay bare our values and whether we\u2019re going to live into them,\u201d Adams Ingram says. \u201cRight now, we\u2019re seeing the Mac community lean into its values to build the world it believes is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRegardless of the great perils in front of us, Minnesotans are still coming forward, not cowering behind closed doors, not just complaining, but putting themselves forward,\u201d Mariani Rosa says. \u201cIt\u2019s a remarkable trait, and I\u2019m so proud to be a Macite and I\u2019m so proud to be a Minnesotan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Macalester community has worked to mobilize its vast network of care amid turmoil in the Twin Cities.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1357,"featured_media":31157,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[46,122,22],"class_list":["post-31155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","tag-history","tag-human-rights-and-humanitarianism","tag-political-science","mediatype-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"fields":{"main_feature_story":"","custom_image":false,"custom_link_url":"","custom_feature_title":"","custom_feature_caption":"","custom_markup":"","custom_markup_link":"","custom_markup_title":"","custom_markup_caption":"","byline":"Abraham Swee","article_type":[8],"post_thumbnail_style":"default","flickr_photoset_id":"","youtube_id":"","square_thumbnail":false,"press_downloads":false,"press_photos":false,"story_title":"","story_caption":"","rotations":false,"maps":false,"marker_title":"","marker_text":"","geographic_location":false,"feature_embed":"","news_icon_name":"","image_options":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1357"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31155"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31419,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31155\/revisions\/31419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}