Socially oppressing topics that affect students are highlighted in the Tunnel of Oppression, which uses sights, sounds and movement and runs until Wednesday.

This event is 5 to 9 p.m. today and Wednesday in the Holmes Student Center’s Duke Ellington Ballroom. Each stop in the tunnel is two minutes long. Participants describe topics related to oppression through acting, spoken word, dancing and visual statistics and collages.

Performers and volunteers created their pieces based on topics they think relate to students on campus.

Some topics covered throughout the event deal with music in society, conformity in education, domestic violence, sexism, suicide, racism and sexual orientation.

The tunnel of oppression is sponsored by Diversity Initiatives Committee. The committee, a part of Housing and Dining, started its annual Tunnel of Oppression Monday. It is led by Jasmin Thurston, co-chair and hall director, who collaborated with former hall director and volunteer coordinator Kalin Noel.

The committee works with events and organizations trying to improve diversity in NIU. The committee started working on the Tunnel of Oppression in late August.

“I want the students, faculty, staff and residents to be more conscious and aware of the presence on campus and how sometimes language and non-verbals can affect others … — specifically targeted groups — and how they can advocate it for social change,” Thurston said.

The tunnel has a reflection room for participants to sit and talk about their experience in the tunnel, how it affected them and how to make their community different. This year the committee is looking to have at least 100 people attend the event. It had 88 participants visit last year.

“There’s are a lot of issues for students on campus that are harder for them to express,” said Jamael L. Clark, senior communication major and tunnel performer. “I want students to learn to follow their own dreams and not let others dissuade them from doing what they really want to do.”

Clark said he works through his own spoken word organization, Impact Makars, and was contacted by Thurston to be a performer. Clark participated in last year’s event and decided to incorporate Impact Makars in this year’s tunnel.

There was an application and interview process for performers and volunteers to be allowed to participate in the tunnel. The committee notified the qualified participants by mid-March and started informational session to prepare them for the event.

“I think the slogan really says it all: Enter challenged, leave changed,” Noel said. “We really want people to come into this experience with an open mind, to maybe experience something that they haven’t before and leave with a new perspective in mind.”