For 31st year, Viterbo students spending a night homeless

Students won’t be out tonight, when it’s relatively
warm. They’ll be out in the rain Thursday.

It’s the 31st year Viterbo University students will simulate a night in the life of the homeless in La Crosse.

If they were doing it tonight, it might not be that bad, as temperatures will only get down as low as 38 degrees. But what kind of lesson would they learn from a February night above freezing?

No, professor Tom Thibideau’s students will be out Thursday night – a night when temps could drop below freezing and there’s a 100 percent chance of rain/freezing rain/snow.

There’s no cancelling the class due to the weather. In fact, it’s never been cancelled.

“We’ve had temperatures where it’s been 40-below windchill and the announcement was ‘All classes cancelled except the homeless (class) will continue as scheduled,” Thibideau said. “But the point is, if you don’t have a place to live, you don’t have an option as to what night you’re going ot stay out.”

And that’s kind of the entire point of the class.

“All I want to do is raise a level of awareness for my students of what it must be like not having a place to live,” Thibideau said.

Thibideau says social attitudes on homelessness have changed since he first started doing the project, and that the subject was rather taboo.

The lesson begins at 5 p.m. and ends 12 hours later. 

“Everybody is a member of our community,” Thibideau said. “And one of the things that we do is eliminate the two words: ‘Those people.’ 

“It’s really interesting, we don’t talk about homeless people, we talk about homelessness as a condition of poverty.”