St. Kate's Mission Statement

On April 13th, 2007 we, the students, are having Tent State University on the quad of the College of St. Catherine. Tent State University is a day for students, faculty, staff and greater community members to open the doors of education for everyone. The problem that inspires Tent State is privilege, the exclusivity of higher education and its role in social inequalities and oppression in this country and throughout the world. In solidarity with St. Thomas and Macalester as well as the local communities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, we will have tents, tables and chairs for the classroom to come outside. This will be a space in which we share information and skills, spread awareness of systems of injustice, celebrate community and culture, and empower.

further description stolen from national Tent State movement

Tent State University is a national network of alternative universities that embody the principles of grassroots democracy, community, and solidarity. The Tent State University model is spreading across college campuses, uniting students, faculty, and university staff, while reaching past the campus community, uniting with veteran, peace, and labor organizations.

Education is a fundamental human right, one that is increasingly being denied to residents due to national spending priorities that favor imperialistic wars over education and other social rights.

The history of the United States, from the Revolutionary War to the women’s suffragist movement to the civil rights movement, has involved the expansion of access to public higher education in the U.S., while our generation’s era is marked with its destruction. Across the United States, public higher education is losing support, and access to a quality education is systematically being denied to our communities.

The dismantling of higher learning has an especially detrimental impact on working and middle-classes, as well as communities of color. We acknowledge tuition increases and scholarship cuts to be methods of exclusion that disproportionately affect those communities that public education should serve. The average college student works an increasing number of hours, graduates in debt, and must focus more on ‘getting by’ than on the quality of their education. In order to finance their education, many students are enticed into military service, believing this to be their only option to a successful future.

Through Tent State University, we focus on democratizing the decision-making processes that control state and national spending priorities. These decisions must not be made by and for elites; instead, they must reflect the rights of residents to education. Further, we believe in democratizing our own universities. Students must be included in the decisions regarding how their universities are run and how their education is shaped. Student interests must be prioritized over private interests.

By offering a space to proactively address common concerns by working to build lasting and sustainable solutions, Tent State University bridges the gap between often segregated student communities for the purpose of pursuing like goals. As an empowering, participatory space that features collaborative workshops, discussions, diverse forms of cultural expression, and various forms of public displays that raise awareness in the surrounding community about a variety of local and national issues, Tent State stands in stark contrast to the hierarchical nature of the modern university and the oppressive processes of society at large.

Tent State engages its participants in a dynamic process that will ultimately lead to social transformation on a scale far beyond college campuses. During Tent State, a collective sense of power and efficacy is developed among its participants that, along with the progressive power they have built in their community through the creation of Tent State, allows them to use their power to take action in spaces well-beyond their universities. The Tent State University model has been received so widely, not only because it is a powerful form of resistance, but also, because it is fundamentally based on the creation of vibrant alternatives.

Top