First of all, yes, the Tunnel of Oppression is literally a tunnel.

“It’s a night where people act out a lot of issues relevant in society in order to raise awareness about the oppression people face in day to day life all over the world…in a tunnel,” stated freshman criminal justice major Mackie Ferguson. “Some of the issues include human trafficking, domestic violence, oppression due to gender, discrimination, and other things of that nature.”

All of these issues will be acted out in the tunnel in the Wilcox gym. This year, the tunnel will take on a new design to make students more aware of various issues.

“The Tunnel of Oppression here at Pace is modeled after ones in other universities,” said senior political science major and Vice President of Unity and Social Justice Tania Palma.

Originally developed at Western Illinois University, the Tunnel of Oppression is slightly based on the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, California.

“The tunnel was established here because it was recognized as an impactful event that got people thinking about social justice issues. There was a direct need to bring this awareness to Pace.” The Tunnel originally was developed in very less-diverse universities in hopes of creating a greater sense of diversity among students. Pace, while already a very diverse campus, uses the Tunnel to make students aware of problems associated with diversity such as race, religion and sexual orientation. Diversity is not just about race, which the Tunnel of Oppression is designed to convey.

“The ultimate goal of the Tunnel of Oppression at Pace, especially for this year, is defining what oppression is,” said Palma. “Every day smaller pieces of oppression will be especially focused on, as this kind of oppression is what may lead to larger hate crimes.”

Student actors from the university will act out scenes to illustrate different examples of oppression. Ageism and gender issues in the workplace are only two of the many examples. The goal of the acting is to bring the oppression faced by people on daily basis to life. These skits will, hopefully, make people more aware of the cruelty that goes on around them and inspire them to take action in ending or preventing these wrongdoings.  A tunnel is used as a simulation of tribulations that many students have the fortune of not having to experiencing, making the opportunity a full-sensory understanding.

“I’m really excited for this year’s tunnel,” said Palma. “The set-up and scenes have been changed, and there seems to be a lot of excitement within the student body.”

This Tunnel of Oppression will be different than prior tunnels.

“The scenes are not as quick,” said Palma. “You have to stand there to watch and truly process each scene; they are not as drastic, but they depict real things that happen.”

The viewers in the tunnel will be watching situations that can occur anytime and unfortunately every day.” The scenes will be emotional and may be hard to watch for some, despite the fact that they are not considered as “drastic” as they have been in years prior. The designs and set-up of the scenes have changed in order to be more emotional. This way, students will get a more realistic sense of the oppression that occurs in our very own communities and may be more inspired to stand against such oppression.

The Tunnel of Oppression will be taking place in Wilcox at 9 pm on March 12, 13, and 14. Students must register on Orgsync in order to attend.

“The process  is lengthy and cumbersome- staying on top of actors, taking care of props, set-up of the tunnel, figuring out scenes, issues of oppression, marketing, and meetings all have to occur in order to put on a successful event,” stated.

“I feel excited, anxious,  nervous and stressed all at once, but mostly excited,” said Palma.

Excited to see how the Tunnel will “play out,” coordinators and actors are hoping this year’s Tunnel will successfully bring a message of peace in diversity to Pace students.