Tunnel of Oppression gives light to issues

A study conducted by Bendick and Egan Economic Consultants, Inc. in high-end Manhattan restaurants reported that of waiters and waitresses applying for jobs, minorities were more often told less about the positions, given less time to be interviewed and did not discuss convenient work scheduling. Statistics such as unequal pay and workforce treatment were presented Monday at the Tunnel of Oppression.

The event opened the doors of the Frazier Alumni Pavilion on Monday to shed light on social issues to the Texas Tech community. The event is hosted annually by University Student Housing and sponsored by the Social Justice Education Committee. Each housing complex on campus presented a booth informing students about different subjects of oppression, including the homeless, equal education rights, body image, abortion and health care.

“This has been going on for several years now. We chose this particular activity because it can provide a powerful opportunity for people to make up their own mind about the information regarding aspects of social justice,” said Christina Zoes, a graduate hall coordinator. “We want to educate people on aspects that will impact their lives. We try to encourage students to think critically for themselves and for people to address these issues in their own ways.”

Zoes, who came to Tech from Woodstock, Ill., said the activity provides a safe environment to explore ideas that may otherwise go overlooked or a position that may have gone unheard.

She said University Student Housing doesn’t want to just encourage academic knowledge, but hopes to promote societal awareness as well.

Students were taken on tours of each booth and interacted in various aspects of every issue. Actors accompanied the group and displayed the various opinions for and against the topics.

“Often people only see one side of the story, so, by providing both sides of the story or interesting tidbits, we hope we can create better educated citizens,” Zoes said.

The Tunnel of Oppression will be open and free to the public 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Frazier Alumni Pavilion near Jones AT&T Stadium.

1 comments

Anonymous

Tue Feb 9 2010 18:13

this event is covered each semester...find new ideas. this is lazy reporting.

Add comment


I am not posting spam. I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.

Enter the characters in the image above:

log out