The Minneapolis College of Art and Design is about a block and a half from where U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents shot Alex Pretti to death Saturday. As protesters gathered in response and law enforcement intensified their crackdown, “We could hear the flashbangs because they were right outside,” said Annie Gillette Cleveland, the college’s vice president of external relations.

“We immediately put together a shelter-in-place for our students on campus because there were protests erupting and ICE agents everywhere and tear gas and flashbangs,” Gillette Cleveland told Inside Higher Ed, adding that Saturday’s lockdown lasted about 11 hours.

“At one point, there were fires being built in the street in trash cans,” she said, calling the situation dangerous. The city of Minneapolis and the Minnesota National Guard set up a temporary perimeter around the campus’s neighborhood.

The college canceled classes this week, and it will conduct remote learning for the next two weeks, Gillette Cleveland said. While the public used to be able to access the college’s art gallery, art store and cafe, now all buildings are locked to those who don’t have badge access, she said.

She predicts the area will continue to see demonstrations. The location where Pretti was shot “will be a frequently visited memorial site,” Gillette Cleveland said. “It’s right on one of our main streets.”

While Minneapolis College of Art and Design was closest to the incident, it’s not the only higher ed institution in the Twin Cities area, which continues to be targeted by a federal immigration crackdown. Two people, Pretti and Renee Good, have now been shot to death by federal agents.

Pretti was an intensive care nurse and University of Minnesota alumnus. UMN president Rebecca Cunningham and other top university leaders mourned his death in a statement Saturday.

“After a peaceful march in Minneapolis yesterday, today our state has been rocked by violence as another person—Alex Pretti, a 2011 graduate of the University of Minnesota, College of Liberal Arts—has been shot and killed by federal agents,” Cunningham wrote. “Our hearts and support go out to all those close to Alex. We are all grieving today for the loss of life. We grieve alongside his family and those close to him.”

She urged students and employees to “stay safe, remain peaceful and care for each other” and “continue to exhibit calm during these unprecedented times. Tensions may flare in your neighborhoods and on our campuses in the coming days.”

“At this time the Twin Cities campus—both in Minneapolis and St. Paul—and our campuses across the University are calm,” Cunningham wrote. “We will update you as we learn more and the situation in Minneapolis evolves.”

A confrontation between demonstrators and law enforcement erupted following a protest accompanied by vandalism Sunday night at a hotel near the Minneapolis part of the Twin Cities campus that was rumored to house federal agents. On Monday, students on the Minneapolis side protested.

In a note to all employees in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System, which includes 26 colleges and seven universities, Chancellor Scott Olson wrote, “Many of our students and colleagues are stressed, afraid, tired, sad, and angry. Tensions are high, making it challenging to have collegial conversations with those who see this moment differently from ourselves.”

He urged employees “to give each other, and our students, grace. We also must remain committed to treating one another with kindness and respect, and that we stay focused on all our students, their success, and supporting them as they navigate this fraught time.”

The Minneapolis campus of St. Mary’s University of Minnesota postponed until May its graduate school commencement, which was set for Saturday, Andy Dirksen, the chief operating officer, wrote in an email to Inside Higher Ed. The university also ended in-person instruction and is offering security escorts to students and employees who request them.

Dirksen wrote that most of the campus’s students “are fully online in our Schools of Graduate and Professional Programs. We have transitioned the few in-person/hybrid programs we have to fully online for now and will reassess on a weekly basis.”

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“Many of our operations have also moved online based on the level of comfort/safety felt by faculty/staff,” he wrote. He also said that employees of a university contractor, GardaWorld Security, “are available to provide escorts between buildings to vehicles.”

Dirksen said students and employees “have been provided guidance on what to do if approached by federal agents” from ICE, and “we’ve also created resource cards that people can carry with them with the same information.”

In an email to Inside Higher Ed, a spokesperson for the University of St. Thomas, another Catholic institution, said it’s encouraging its community to gather for campus masses “this week to pray for those impacted by this weekend’s events,” while its “Office for Mission is also holding a prayer service next week at St. Thomas’s main student center to stand in solidarity with the community.”

St. Thomas is in its last week of January term, “which means our campus is relatively quiet,” the spokesperson wrote, but most students return next week.

“St. Thomas has been regularly communicating with international students and recently shared resources with the entire university community about the university’s response, including guidance for what to do if agents come to campus, spiritual and mental health support, steps for applying for emergency grants if students face financial difficulties, safety resources and attendance and coursework policies,” she wrote. “At this time, the university is continuing with in-person instruction because students have communicated they feel safe on campus, we know they learn better in person, and international students have requirements for in-person classes to maintain their visa statuses.”

Macalester College president Suzanne M. Rivera issued a statement last week, before Pretti’s death, expressing her “profound anguish about the violence that has been unleashed on our city by federal law enforcement.” Her message mentioned multiple steps Macalester has taken that are similar to those at other institutions.

She said the college has “expanded 24-7 card access to all buildings” and “arranged for campus vans to pick up returning students at MSP [Airport] to avoid the risk of contact with federal agents in the rideshare lot.”

“Although we are not unilaterally flipping to remote learning (to avoid the risk of invalidating the visas of our international students), we have encouraged faculty to provide flexibility when possible and we encourage students to check in with their faculty about plans for the first week of classes,” Rivera wrote. She also mentioned faith-based services available to students.

Back at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, president Gwendolyn Freed issued a statement Monday praising “colleagues and friends” for what they did the day of Pretti’s death.

“From Student Affairs staff who braved teargas to get to residence halls, to volunteers who helped us pick up and deliver food for students and employees, to our Facilities team members who boarded up our 26th Street windows amid the mayhem and subzero cold, and so many more—everyone gave their all,” Freed said.

“We are doing everything we can to keep our beloved College and all those within it safe, and we will keep going,” Freed said. “We have gotten through many challenges since our founding in 1886. We will get through this, too.”