Tent State University is a national movement at various universities in the United States and England in which students, staff and community members set up tents and build an alternative

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

. This model is used to facilitate collective activism and student

organizing Organizing or organized may refer to: * Organizing (management), a process of coordinating task goals and activities to resources * Community organizing, in which communities come together to act in their shared self-interest * Professional org ...

Focus

The main lobbying focus is on policies which harm higher education. This includes taking funding away from education at the federal and state level, the lack of democratic influence in school governance, and rejecting the annual excuse of a budget crisis. It also calls special attention to the war in Iraq which consumes a large amount of resources which could be spent on higher education. Tent State is distinct in its emphasis on democracy at all levels of society: "People who work together make decisions together, and people who make decisions together work together." It also places a tactical emphasis on coalition building across diverse communities.

Spread

The movement started at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

in 2003 and has spread to many other schools. Universities involved include the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

, as well as the Madison campus of the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...

, the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

, campus of the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, ...

, the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from H ...

, SUNY,

Rowan University Rowan University is a public research university in Glassboro, New Jersey, with a medical campus in Stratford and medical and academic campuses in Camden. It was founded in 1923 as Glassboro Normal School on a site donated by 107 residents. ...

, and Tent State UK at the

University of Sussex , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

. Even though its main focus is higher education and democracy in the United States, an increasing number of left-wing organizations have used Tent State as a forum for discussions on a broad range of issues.

References

External links

Tent State website (Rutgers)
{{Rutgers, New Brunswick Student protests in the United States Protests in the United Kingdom Protests against the Iraq War