Since 2008, the Tunnel of Oppression has been a staple of the University of Miami’s spring semester but this year it will be different than it ever has been in the past. This year’s event will highlight COVID-19 and the disparities that have come from it

“We’re definitely going to add disparities from Covid because that is a huge form of oppression that we’ve seen been exposed since March of 2020,” said Ashlee Sealy, a senior biochemistry and molecular biology major, who is one of the co-chairs of the event this year.

“My desire for wanting to be co-chair was really from me having already participated in Tunnel since my freshmen year,” said Sealy. She first got involved with the Tunnel of Oppression her freshman year as a member of the auxiliary board, the team that helps build the different rooms of the experience. She also said seeing ideas go from paper to being built was exciting to see.

In the past the tunnel has had many different topics.

“It has had various topics from education, LGBTQ+ rights, gender issues, ableism, a religion room,” said Collette Mighty, the assistant director of the Butler Center. Since the event is student led and the executive board is different each year, the topics covered are never the same, but Mighty said racism and environmental issues tend to come up often.

“Everybody says in 30 years Miami is going to be under water, so our students are really sort of eco-conscious,” she said.

The multisensory experience is intended to educate the University of Miami community on oppression and its related issues. Participants are expected to go through every room of the experience, and the whole thing usually lasts 30 to 45 minutes.

“However, if the topic in the room is a trigger point for the participant, that individual can be excused from that specific room and rejoin the tour group in the following room,” said Mighty. Participants are taken through the experience with a tour guide.

“The tour guide will start with the room closest to the ballroom where a video introduction is played to begin the experience,” said Mighty

There is a lot to take in when it comes to Tunnel of Oppression.

“We don’t want to necessarily just have a shock factor, we want to have a reflective factor as well,” Mighty said. Sealy also said that it is important for students to come to the Tunnel of Oppression with open minds.

At the end of the experience, there is the reflection room. “That’s where you can kind of come to assemble all your ideas and everything you’ve learned going through the different rooms of oppression,” Sealy said. The goal of the experience is to remind students to show empathy and compassion to others, as many are experiencing their own forms of oppression. “That’s something that I think is beautiful about Tunnel of Oppression,” Sealy said.

“If you just want to put this on your resume this is not the e-board for you,” Mighty said. Applicants will also go through an interview process after their initial application has been reviewed.

The e-board requires commitment in addition to passion.

“This is time consuming,” said Mighty. The rough timeline of the event includes weekly meetings from September to January and a weekend build from January 21 to January 23 to get the experience ready.