Through a dark tunnel, enlightenment

Campus to host tolerance event

 by Allison Denny
 published on Monday, March 31, 2008

John Battaglia / THE STATE PRESS

TUNNEL INSTRUCTION: Design sophomore Elenia Sotell sets up for the “Tunnel of Oppression” event held in the residential commons at ASU Downtown Phoenix campus. It is a multimedia and multi-sensory learning experience designed to build social awareness and understanding.

John Battaglia / THE STATE PRESS

FACING OPPRESSION: The “Tunnel of Oppression” event will be held for the first time at the Downtown Phoenix campus Monday.

An hour-long trip through a "tunnel" could give Downtown Phoenix students insight into the types of oppression faced by segments of our society.

The Tunnel of Oppression, seen on college campuses across the county, offers students a multimedia tour designed to spark interest in social inequalities. A group of students will host a tunnel of their own Monday night on ASU's Downtown Phoenix campus.

Creative writing and theater sophomore Eichelle Armstrong is the president of Downtown Tunnel of Oppression.

This is the first year that the tunnel will be held downtown. The event was held in Tempe for years, Armstrong said, but the last one was in 2005.

Participants begin in groups of 10 in a pitch-black room, bombarded by racial slurs and derogatory terms common to those who are socially oppressed.

Next, students do an exercise that allows them to see how high they are on the privilege scale, Armstrong said.

"We ask a question like 'Did your parents take you to the museum as a child?' " Armstrong said. "If the answer is yes, you get to take a step forward. If it's no, you take a step back."

Students then see skits, movie clips, monologues and posters relating to social justice topics, sparking questions and inviting debate.

Vice president Elenia Sotelo, an urban and metropolitan studies sophomore, joined the organization last year because of her passion for social justice issues and awareness.

And the tunnel helps other students realize the advocates within themselves, she added.

Armstrong said this year's tunnel focuses on three topics: racism, socio-economic oppression and gender issues.

Narrowing the focus down to three issues was hard with so many social justice problems out there, she said.

By choosing only a few key topics, the group can choose other issues later, Armstrong said, to make the experience different every year.

While the tunnels at some schools are divided into topics and others into categories of sensory experience like sight and sound, Armstrong said the Downtown campus tunnel merges the two.

"We don't expect people to come out of this with complete awareness," Armstrong said. "[But] I want people to come out of this asking questions."

Following the tunnel experience, a member of ASU's Intergroup Relations Center hosts a discussion.

Teresita Hurtado, an employee at the Intergroup Relations Center, will be hosting this year's discussion.

The IRC used to help with the Tempe Tunnel, Hurtado said, and wanted to continue the tradition of assisting the students with the program.

Hurtado said the tunnel offers students a different social justice experience.

"There's a difference when you read about social justice versus participating in an environment where there's more stimulation, whether it's audio or visual," she said.

Some students, she added, are exposed to only the social injustices that they face and not the mistreatment of others.

The tunnel gives participants an opportunity to be in someone else's shoes — even if only for an hour.

The most important thing students can walk away from Tunnel with is a desire for action, Hurtado said.

"It's one thing to walk away from an experience and say, 'Wow, that's sad' and another to say, 'What can I do?' and actually do it," she said.

The tunnel runs Monday night from 6:15 to 8 p.m. To RSVP, e-mail tunnelasu@yahoo.com.

Reach the reporter at: allison.denny@asu.edu.