Tunnel of Oppression 2011

By Joanne Santomauro

This year, the student-run Tunnel of Oppression exposed real testimonies of students and community members who have faced (and still face) the daily struggle for human rights. The exhibit illustrates the mental, physical, and emotional damage inflicted upon those dealing with racial oppression, homophobia, sexual assault, religious persecution, body image, sexism, electronic waste, poverty, and more.

Tunnel of Oppression was hosted this year in the Locatelli Center. Upon entry, visitors encountered a "tunnel" made of white curtains. As visitors walked through the winding tunnel, they saw several exhibits, each prepared by various student organizations to illustrate the oppression faced by different minorities.

"[Our mission] is to get the campus aware of the issues in the real world," said one of the coordinators Jackie Santayana. "We wanted to break the Santa Clara bubble and educate people, get them talking."

The exhibits challenged visitors to think critically about issues like the home demolition in Israel and Palestine, a topic not often discussed casually at the dinner table.

The Tunnel involved groups like SCCAP, Campus Ministry, the MCC, Shirts Across America, B-LEJIT, Wonderfully Made, GASPED, Peer Health Educators, and Every2Minutes. Highlights included the exhibit "Do you go here? You don't look like an SCU student," which displayed real testimonies from Santa Clara students who have dealt with harassment here on the Santa Clara campus because of their race.

Additionally, this year's Tunnel featured a movie exhibit showcasing the work of Dr. Jonathan Fung's Communications students. Visitors could watch a stream of short documentaries about body image on campus, marriage equality, racism, prostitution, media and body image, and rape.

After going through the Tunnel of Oppression, visitors were led through the Tunnel of Hope, a series of exhibits intended to inspire visitors to take action, but also to show appreciation and gratitude toward for the steps that have already been taken against issues of oppression.

Visitors posted messages of hope on the walls of the Tunnel of Hope. Allies of the LGBT community signed the inside of a real closet to show their support. Also included in the Tunnel of Hope were two signed posters from off-campus sororities displaying support for the LGBT community.

In response to the religious persecution demonstrated in the Tunnel of Oppression, the Tunnel of Hope presented a slideshow entitled "Despite my religion...I want to tell the world," which was composed of Santa Clara students' statements and photos. Students from a multitude of religions — from Hinduism to Christianity — declared their life philosophies, some of which contradicted popular conceptions of religion. For example, one Santa Clara student was shown holding up a sign that read, "I am a pro-gay rights, pro-life Christian."

Additionally, the Tunnel of Hope featured a timeline of students' actions for human rights, including the humble formation of the MCC as a club housed in the Dunne basement and its later relocation to the Shapell Lounge.

At the end of the Tunnel of Hope was a reflection area, where visitors could write their reflections on paper leaves and hang them on wire trees, make origami cranes, or write on the "Reflection Wall."

The Tunnel of Oppression exhibit is displayed at many other campuses as well. The exhibit is based on the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. This is the fourth year that the Tunnel has been on display at Santa Clara. Originally, the ARDs and CFs were in charge of the Tunnel. Since its inception, however, the Tunnel has changed quite a bit. For example, the Tunnel is now run by three student facilitators who work through the Office of Multicultural Learning to put on the exhibit.

This year, sophomores Santayana, Josh Chemparathy and Riva Sutanto were the main coordinators for the event. They were notified in June of their accepted applications and started working on the Tunnel during the first week of the fall quarter. Mary Ho, Program Director of the Office of Multicultural Learning, served as their advisor.

"The least we would expect is that people go through it and think about it," said Chemparathy. "As long as people are thinking about it, we're making a difference. That's all the groups wanted — for people to think about the issues because they are prevalent and people don't recognize that. Yearly, about 1,000 people go through it… Clearly it's something students are interested in."

The Tunnel of Oppression was featured from Sunday, April 3 to Wednesday, April 6 until 5 p.m. each day.

This year on opening day, the Tunnel received about 100 visitors. Coordinators hope that more students will get involved with the Tunnel in future years, and use the large venue to their advantage.

"A lot of people have put a lot of work into this," said Chemparathy. "We'd also love if people are impacted by it, to have more participation. Because the Locatelli is so big, there's always room to expand [the Tunnel] for issues that were underrepresented this year… There will be more facilitators next year also."

Tunnel coordinators are now looking for students who may be interested in facilitating the Tunnel of Oppression next year. Students who are interested should check their email inboxes and Facebook messages for more information.

Contact Joanne at jsantomauro@scu.edu or at (408) 554-1918.