Spring Break
The Daily OrangeTunnel of Oppression faces opposition
By Colin Dabkowski
Posted: 1/22/04, 1:53 AM EST Section: News
Students in need of a little abuse, worry not - Syracuse University is bringing the oppression to you.
In its ongoing effort to promote diversity, the Office of Residence Life is sponsoring the fourth annual "Tunnel of Oppression" tonight in the Schine Student Center. But organizers of the event are drawing fire from some of the very groups they are trying to help.
After two blackface incidents and an alleged anti-gay hate crime over the past two years, the tunnel is attracting more attention - much of it negative - for its unorthodox approach to social education.
The idea for the tunnel, a haunted house-like production with scenes depicting instances of ableism, racism, sexism, homophobia and other types of oppression, was created in 1994 at Western Illinois State University. It has since spread to campuses around the country and been highly successful and popular, winning "Program of the Year" in 1995 from the National Association of College and University Residence Halls.
But the Beyond Compliance Coordinating Committee, a group at SU committed to raising disability consciousness on campus, questions the ability of such projects to create substantive change on campus.
"It's a freak show," said Rebecca Cory, a BCCC member and doctoral student in cultural foundations of education and disability studies. "It doesn't actually challenge you, the student, to say 'How should I be different and how do I participate as the oppressor?'"
BCCC members, along with students from Open Doors and the Student Environmental Action Coalition, say that while the intentions of tunnel organizers are good, the "simulation" method of education they espouse is too visceral and oversimplifies the complex issues surrounding oppression. In some incarnations of the program, for instance, students must watch a person in a wheelchair attempt to fit through a door that is too narrow.
"The risk there is that someone walks out of the tunnel saying 'Wow, it really sucks to be in a wheelchair,'" Cory said.
In its ongoing effort to promote diversity, the Office of Residence Life is sponsoring the fourth annual "Tunnel of Oppression" tonight in the Schine Student Center. But organizers of the event are drawing fire from some of the very groups they are trying to help.
After two blackface incidents and an alleged anti-gay hate crime over the past two years, the tunnel is attracting more attention - much of it negative - for its unorthodox approach to social education.
The idea for the tunnel, a haunted house-like production with scenes depicting instances of ableism, racism, sexism, homophobia and other types of oppression, was created in 1994 at Western Illinois State University. It has since spread to campuses around the country and been highly successful and popular, winning "Program of the Year" in 1995 from the National Association of College and University Residence Halls.
But the Beyond Compliance Coordinating Committee, a group at SU committed to raising disability consciousness on campus, questions the ability of such projects to create substantive change on campus.
"It's a freak show," said Rebecca Cory, a BCCC member and doctoral student in cultural foundations of education and disability studies. "It doesn't actually challenge you, the student, to say 'How should I be different and how do I participate as the oppressor?'"
BCCC members, along with students from Open Doors and the Student Environmental Action Coalition, say that while the intentions of tunnel organizers are good, the "simulation" method of education they espouse is too visceral and oversimplifies the complex issues surrounding oppression. In some incarnations of the program, for instance, students must watch a person in a wheelchair attempt to fit through a door that is too narrow.
"The risk there is that someone walks out of the tunnel saying 'Wow, it really sucks to be in a wheelchair,'" Cory said.
