Tent State University at Sussex
We reclaimed our own campus from the hands of authority and stuck two fingers up, with a typically rebellious student attitude, to the bureaucracy and institutions that suppressed our actions.
Although it is of course typical for an activist to disregard authorities that attempt to intimidate them under fear, Tent State was different. It was not obsessed with making those who opposed it unhappy by continuing the event but aiming to benefit students; speaking as an organiser I can confirm this.
After starting to organise Tent State in February 2007 our belief in the project increased and so did our enthusiasm. But what were we actually doing? Tent State is an education festival that started at Rutgers University in 2003 in remembrance of the students who were shot by authorities at Kent State University for protesting against the Vietnam War. Tent State has been adopted by a number of universities across the United States; we are the first to do it in the UK.
Each Tent State University can tackle something different; Tent State University of Sussex was an attack on government’s expenditure on war, which therefore neglected far more beneficial things such as the right to education. The privatisation of university allows only the wealthy to go to university and come out with the least debt and the poorer to be plummeted into a debt chasm of twenty grand, which I know is what I will at least be leaving with. Tent State University of Sussex was about supplying students with an alternative free education, reclaiming the campus that we pay for and demonstrate how we believe it should be more effectively utilised.
But even if there was no money being spent on war, I am sure that fees would still be on the increase and therefore persist to exclude the underclass. But using war expenditure in contrast with the increasing top up fees does paint a clear picture of our government’s priorities.
Tent State’s main aim was the providing alternative educational space. From Wednesday 20th June to Friday 22nd of June we set up a series of talks, roughly about five a day, under a marquee lent to us by a friend. The marquee was big enough to house talks such as, “Who really ended slavery”, “Gender Fucking and Fucking Gender”, “Free Palestine”, “Pan Afrikanist Futures” to say a few. Whether these titles encompass a great deal of diversity that is up to you to decide, but what I have personally learnt from the talks is far more than I have learnt from any lecture or seminar. The informality of each talk was a blessing, our non-hierarchical structure and our bean bag and cushion seating was all purposefully arranged to make the visitor feel comfortable. This was in order for people to feel less intimidated by any kind intellectual masturbation that can occur pretty often in a university space.
This space was surrounded by art work that I had organised to decorate the inside of the tent and the evenings accompanied by some acoustic music. I only slept in our marquee the second night, whereas most organisers slept there both nights.
The original plan of Tent State was supposed to be at the end of May over six days and multiple marquees, interactive activities, performance, live bands but our organisation was fractured by the university and Student Union’s unenthusiastic response. The university contacted Sussex police with evidence of the event’s preparation and police issued a potentially hefty fine for illegal gathering if the event was to continue with any Student Union involvement. For me personally this was one of the most disheartening things to occur during the event, the fact that the university I pay for would use such measures to intimidate its students and undermine our efforts.
Our organising skills to begin with were not exactly superlative, and now with this threat in place we became disillusioned and our momentum slowed down a great deal. Having to rearrange everything to a later date was very testing of our dedication, but it was too easy for us to just cancel. Our belief in the event did become a great deal stronger after the university had threatened us in such a manner.
When Wednesday 20th June hit we were all extremely apprehensive of how it was all going to turn out. We started setting up the marquee at 8am and of course were interrupted by on campus security who knew of the event. They then told us to talk to the university who urged we close it down straight away, but we insisted that the university permission was of little importance to us and continued.
Tent State University of Sussex grew and grew by the day and the weather was of great help to us too. Although our event was clearly disorganised, we were so pleased with the fact that it actually happened, imperfections seemed trivial and something to perfect for the next Tent State.
Of course this is a biased opinion of the event, but it fills me with nothing but warmth that people came and listened and spoke and slept and left something that sought affirmation on campus and found it.
