Funeral for Education at UCI Today

UC Rebel Radio presents a mock funeral for education this afternoon at UC Irvine.

Faculty, staff and students wearing black are expected to participate in a 1 p.m. gathering at the flagpole, where speakers will eulogize young people's future before departing for a procession around the campus.

“The desire for the free and equitable cultivation of thought which
spurred the creation of the University of California has been smothered,
due in part to privatization and the increasing lack of availability of
an excellent UC education,” states a letter from a group of participating groups.
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May 4 was chosen as it marks the 40th anniversary of the Kent State
massacre, where four unarmed
students were killed and nine injured by Ohio National Guardsmen called
in to quell a protest over the U.S. invasion of Cambodia. It is also 10 days away from the 40th anniversary of the incident at Jackson State College, where two student protesters were killed and 12 injured by city and state
police.

“As we mourn the deaths of these students and the dimming of the
future of education we will protest in kind,” states the UCI letter. “We will let our voices ring
in the halls of our campus, and to the question 'whose university?' we
will answer 'our university!'”

Organizers cite the 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education, which stated:

. . . this notion [raising tuition] is, of course, an
incomprehensible repudiation of the whole philosophy of a successful
democracy premised upon an educated citizenry. It negates the whole
concept of wide-spread educational opportunity made possible by the
state university idea. It conceives college training as a personal
investment for profit instead of a social investment (p 173).

“In the spirit of the Master Plan, therefore, and in accordance with
our beliefs we will mourn the future of public education on May 4,” states the letter, which is signed by “The concerned students, faculty and workers of UC Irvine.”