ICE is in our backyard, our front yard, and knocking on our front door! What will you do, President Rundell Singer? What will you do, St. Olaf College?

Apparently, not much. ICE has a history of terrorizing Northfield, even before this recent Trumpian wave.

While many students are preoccupied with the looming fact that ICE is in Northfield and only 10 minutes away from campus, the lack of a stance by this college and its administration is overwhelmingly disappointing.

We wonder how much longer our campus administrators and officials can turn a blind eye.

St. Olaf College will be remembered as one of the many Minnesotan institutions of higher education that boast about racial and cultural diversity, while simultaneously turning a blind eye to the abuse of humans by federal agents on the basis of race and cultural identity.

There is no neutrality in today’s world. We are either going to struggle for a better future for our children, or be a tool for the demolition of human rights.

I do not expect President Rundell Singer to write an email to the entire student body condemning Donald Trump’s fascist regime or ICE in Minnesota, although I would welcome this with open arms.

I do not expect this because I know that institutions like this one do not work for me or any of my friends and family.

Instead, they work for profit. St. Olaf College operates within a system that, at best, requires the Board of Regents to submissively bow down to shareholder interests and demands, and at worst, necessitates our Board of Regents and institution to cooperate and collaborate with moral corruption.

After all, we must not forget our college is a settler colonial project birthed by Norwegians profiting off of a passionate ethos of expansion. We exist in a country sick with racism in every corner, including Minnesota, which is deeply haunted by genocide and terminal racism, contrary to popular belief.

I do not expect St. Olaf College to speak out against ICE in any meaningful way.

I would love for this to happen, and I wait for the day when it does.

There was an “Election Decompression” Wellness Center event in November of 2024.

In response to the influx of ICE in Northfield and Minnesota in recent high-stress times, the weight and demands of emotional regulation and social welfare do not fall upon institutions such as St. Olaf, but on the very same burdened, and still resilient, people.

I expect a response to collective trauma.

I expect to see events supporting our collective decompression and recovery.

I expect a more robust on-campus welfare infrastructure, such as further development of The Lion’s Pantry, so that students aren’t made to leave campus for basic necessities when they feel unsafe to do so.

It is proper and non-controversial to have tighter security protocols enacted on this college campus.

Director of Public Safety Jeff Favreau and President Rundell Singer’s Leadership Team will be remembered in history as those who hesitated, those who listened, and then shut the door anyway.