Skip to content
ADVERTISEMENT
Sign In
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
  • More
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
    Upcoming Events:
    An AI-Driven Work Force
    AI and Microcredentials
Sign In
Government and Politics

At Rallies Across the Country, Students Turn Out in Defense of Public Education

By Paige Chapman and Eric Kelderman October 7, 2010
Students participated in a jazz-inspired “funeral” for education on Thursday at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge.
Students participated in a jazz-inspired “funeral” for education on Thursday at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge.Eddy Perez, LSU

Less than a month before midterm elections, students, faculty members, and advocacy groups held rallies on campuses across the country on Thursday to show elected officials their support for public higher education.

At Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge, for example, several hundred people gathered on the campus’s parade grounds for a jazz-inspired “funeral” for higher education. Some participants, dressed in black carried a coffin labeled “education,” while others carried flags representing language programs that the university has cut to cope with shrinking state appropriations.

To continue reading for FREE, please sign in.

Sign In

Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.

Don’t have an account? Sign up now.

A free account provides you access to a limited number of free articles each month, plus newsletters, job postings, salary data, and exclusive store discounts.

Sign Up

Less than a month before midterm elections, students, faculty members, and advocacy groups held rallies on campuses across the country on Thursday to show elected officials their support for public higher education.

At Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge, for example, several hundred people gathered on the campus’s parade grounds for a jazz-inspired “funeral” for higher education. Some participants, dressed in black carried a coffin labeled “education,” while others carried flags representing language programs that the university has cut to cope with shrinking state appropriations.

More program and job cuts are likely, as the state is struggling to close a deficit in its current budget year, and Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican, has said that higher-education funds could be cut by as much as 35 percent in the budget that lawmakers will craft next year.

The Baton Rouge event was organized by a grass-roots group called Proud Students, along with the LSU Graduate Student Association, the Faculty Senate, and union groups representing university staff members and schoolteachers. Bradley Wood, a senior at Louisiana State and co-founder of Proud Students, said the group has sent letters to candidates for statewide office warning about the effects of such deep cuts, but it has yet to get responses from those politicians.

On several campuses of the University of California, which lost $637-million in state appropriations last year, groups also held events to mark Thursday’s “National Day of Action to Defend Public Education.”

At the University of California at Berkeley, demonstrators at a variety of events protested the cuts and their effects on public colleges and universities. One event, a sit-in in a library reading room, drew some 500 participants before the campus police blocked access. The demonstrators banged on desks and chanted “Whose university? Our university!” and several hundred remained in the room as of late afternoon, but there were no reports of arrests, according to the university’s News Center.

Other demonstrations at Berkeley included a large outdoor rally and “teach-outs,” in which professors held classes outside. Ignacio Chapela, an associate professor of environmental science at Berkeley, was one who held his classes outside on Thursday. Mr. Chapela said many students are upset about the university’s student-fee increase of more than 30 percent, as well as an influx of out-of-state enrollment, to compensate for lost funds.

“Students are becoming the cash cow for the institution because the university is banking on whatever they can pay,” Mr. Chapela said. “They’re standing up for what they believe to be wrong budgetary policies in both the state and the nation.”

Elsewhere, students, faculty and staff members, and concerned community members gathered at a rally at the University of Minnesota and urged state officials to designate money for “education, not administration,” reported Minnesota Public Radio.

In Massachusetts, a rally at the Statehouse was scheduled to cap a six-day march across the state protesting cuts in state money for higher education.

ADVERTISEMENT

And at Northeastern University, a private institution in Boston, a student group that advocates on behalf of nonunion workers held a teach-in about the growing involvement of corporations in the operations and support of higher education.

Claire Lewis, a sophomore at Northeastern and a member of the Progressive Student Alliance, said the university is becoming “corporatized” by hiring nonunion workers for custodial and food services, and by relying too much on adjunct faculty members without concern for the quality of education.

Not all groups that sympathize with the issues raised by the National Day of Action chose to stage events on Thursday.

Brian Turner, chairman of the department of political science at Randolph-Macon College and secretary of the Assembly of State for the American Association of University Professors in Virginia, said his organization is concerned about the effect of budget cuts, but would focus its activities around the beginning of the calendar year, “when the General Assembly is in session.”

We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Tags
Law & Policy Political Influence & Activism
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
Eric Kelderman
About the Author
Eric Kelderman
Eric Kelderman covers issues of power, politics, and purse strings in higher education. You can email him at eric.kelderman@chronicle.com, or find him on Twitter @etkeld.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

More News

Photo illustration showing Santa Ono seated, places small in the corner of a dark space
'Unrelentingly Sad'
Santa Ono Wanted a Presidency. He Became a Pariah.
Illustration of a rushing crowd carrying HSI letters
Seeking precedent
Funding for Hispanic-Serving Institutions Is Discriminatory and Unconstitutional, Lawsuit Argues
Photo-based illustration of scissors cutting through paper that is a photo of an idyllic liberal arts college campus on one side and money on the other
Finance
Small Colleges Are Banding Together Against a Higher Endowment Tax. This Is Why.
Pano Kanelos, founding president of the U. of Austin.
Q&A
One Year In, What Has ‘the Anti-Harvard’ University Accomplished?

From The Review

Photo- and type-based illustration depicting the acronym AAUP with the second A as the arrow of a compass and facing not north but southeast.
The Review | Essay
The Unraveling of the AAUP
By Matthew W. Finkin
Photo-based illustration of the Capitol building dome propped on a stick attached to a string, like a trap.
The Review | Opinion
Colleges Can’t Trust the Federal Government. What Now?
By Brian Rosenberg
Illustration of an unequal sign in black on a white background
The Review | Essay
What Is Replacing DEI? Racism.
By Richard Amesbury

Upcoming Events

Plain_Acuity_DurableSkills_VF.png
Why Employers Value ‘Durable’ Skills
Warwick_Leadership_Javi.png
University Transformation: a Global Leadership Perspective
  • Explore Content
    • Latest News
    • Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Chronicle Intelligence
    • Jobs in Higher Education
    • Post a Job
  • Know The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Vision, Mission, Values
    • DEI at The Chronicle
    • Write for Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • Our Reporting Process
    • Advertise With Us
    • Brand Studio
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Account and Access
    • Manage Your Account
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Group and Institutional Access
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
  • Get Support
    • Contact Us
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • User Agreement
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2025 The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is academe’s most trusted resource for independent journalism, career development, and forward-looking intelligence. Our readers lead, teach, learn, and innovate with insights from The Chronicle.
Follow Us
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin