“The Tunnel of Opression encourages more empathy in students towards minorities”

By Edward Jennings, Staff Writer

Published in print Feb. 4, 2015

Of all the schools in the UNC system, UNCG has the most diverse student body. With 18,600 plus students, 26 percent of those students are from an ethnic minority.

One can only imagine the hardships that come with these different views of life, though.

That is why graduate students Niki Paganelli and Justin Shreve decided to host UNCG’s very first Tunnel of Oppression.

The Tunnel of Oppression is a program that is held on multiple college campuses across the country. Two of UNCG’s sister-institutions that host the program are UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State.

The program helps to raise awareness of oppression that students face on a day-to-day basis.

In 1993, at Western Illinois University, the first Tunnel of Oppression was held.

Since then, the program has spread nationwide and helps students learn concepts such as power, privilege and oppression.

The events aim to encourage an understanding of and an appreciation for social justice.

A tour guide leads participants through the Tunnel of Oppression, which has rooms that showcase a particular aspect of social justice.

The Tunnel is meant to be an emotional and charged experience so that students can better empathize with those who suffer from oppression.

“It puts students in a real life moment,”Shreve told UNCG’s Student Government Association. “It’s kind of like stepping in someone else’s shoes”.

There will be four different rooms through which students will have the chance to walk.

Body image, immigration, racial profiling and physical disability will be the different topics of focus in the rooms.

“We hope that in the future, this can be a recurring program where we are able to introduce more topics or have more rooms at the same time,” Paganelli emphasized.

At the end of the Tunnel, all students that have walked through will be involved in a debriefing session.

“This debriefing session will give the students the opportunity to talk about what happened in the scenarios and really process what has taken place so they can take this information further,” Paganelli stated.

“We’re looking for people to experience specific examples of oppression,” Shreve said. “Students will be challenged by different perspectives of controversial social justice issues.” 

The Tunnel of Oppression is still in need of help from students.

Actors, set designers, script writers and artists are all positions that still must be filled.

The Tunnel of Oppression is set to take place March 30 in the Cone Ballroom of Elliot University Center.

If interested, contact Niki Paganelli at ndpagane@uncg.edu or Justin Shreve at jlshreve@uncg.edu.