User login

Background on the Tent State Organizing Model

Click here for the model (PDF)

Click here for some notes on Art City at Tent State (PDF)

 
Tent State University (TSU) is a model developed over the past few years by over 30 campuses nationally and internationally, including Rutgers (where it was founded), University of Central Arkansas, University of California at Santa Cruz, University of Missouri - Kansas City, UCLA, UMass at Amherst, Elmhurst College, Macalester, University of Minnesota, in Scotland for an anti-nuclear weapons gathering, and in England at the University of Sussex.

The model works by claiming space on a campus or public area, setting up tents to house the "alternative university" where participants engage in workshops and events that foster education and empowerment, while merging politics and culture through art as well as music.

Tent State becomes a space where participants can come together and practice democracy.

By building our own institutions of art, politics, and education we try to generate enough social power to change the undemocratic structures and practices of our universities and society.

During Tent State participants work together to demonstrate what democracy means to us and build a world where people who work together decide together.

This model has been incredibly successful in engaging otherwise apathetic people, empowering groups involved in the coalition, and achieving concrete results.