April Blog: The Perspective

UW – Eau Claire Hosting “Tunnel of Awareness” Event this April

The University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire is hosting a new event next week that is called the “tunnel of awareness”. This event will be an interactive way for students to gain a better understanding of implicit bias surrounding student life on campus. This event will run from 5:00 – 8:00 pm in the Dakotah ballroom in Davies Center (UWEC), Wednesday, April 13th.

This is essentially an extension event, piggybacking on the previously shown event at the Pablo Center with the traveling Smithsonian Exhibit that was discussing similar problems with implicit bias. However, this is a separate event that is hosted by the diversity, equity, inclusion, and student affairs department of the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire. 

The UWEC group has previously tried an event like this in the past, and they are taking advantage of this opportunity to revamp some of its unique attributes to become a more impactful event for staff and students on campus. The previous event was called “Tunnel of Oppression”, and primarily focused on educating others about oppression and microaggressions. However, with the new event, they hope to shift the train of thought for their audience and focus on analyzing that specific behavior that is resulting in biased behavior. 

Joshua Gonzalez is one of the main individuals running the event as he is a graduate assistant representing the center of EDI training, Development, and Education sector at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire. He states that “Through the interactive process and the guided follow-up discussions, our main goals are to educate and offer resources and support to students, faculty, and staff most directly affected by all these types of bias.”

This event will be set up as a self-navigated exhibit, similar to the one just previously hosted at the Pablo Center. This is nice because it allows attendees to go at their own pace, and the average time allocated for all eight stations in total is just about an hour. Each station at the event will present a different topic from equitable residential experiences to equity in student manners, and more. There is so much opportunity to learn from this event, and we are excited to spread awareness about this unique experience. 

To get signed up for this upcoming event, or to simply learn more, please click the link below!