More than 110 DU students walked through this year’s Tunnel of Oppression that was set up at Jazzman’s CafCB) in Driscoll North last Wednesday.

Associate Director of Housing and Residential Education Tori Furno worked with Julio Alas, vice-president of the Latino Student Alliance, on the project. The tunnel included a human race machine, which is a machine that takes your picture and digitally transforms your face to show you what you look like in six different races.

The tunnel of oppression is a program that was introduced at DU in 2004 with the intention to educate students about the types of oppression that still happen everyday. Different minority groups on campus worked to create five different scenarios for the tunnel that illustrated the different types of oppression that they face on a daily basis. Small groups of students walked though the tunnel watching skits that focused on topics such as immigration, rights for gays and body image. The groups that prepared skits for the tunnel included the Black Student Alliance, the Latino Student Alliance, the Queer Student Alliance and the Undergraduate Women’s Council.

“We want students to be a big part of this program. Without their support the program does not happen. We want it to continue to get better each year and we want it to impact more people,” said Furno.

Organizers were pleased with the turnout.

“Organizations and skits were more organized and thoughtful this year and that is really important because people really need to know what oppression is,” said Anna Sun, a sophomore and member of the Queer Student Alliance.

Although the program was a success, reaching more students than it has in prior years, Furno said she still wants to make improvements.

“There is room for one more skit and I would like it to focus on religion,” said Furno.

“I like the idea of hope. Maybe in the future we could have a tunnel of oppression and a tunnel of hope. I would also like to have more resources for people in the future,” said Furno.

The tunnel of oppression received support from faculty and staff as well as the student body.

“It’s been a joy working with the student organizations,” said Furno.

Other sponsors of the event included AUSA, RHA and DUPB.