Students and faculty mourn the death of education

There was a mock funeral Wednesday in downtown Long Beach where over 100 student, faculty and community members showed up to protest budget cuts for universities in California. The funeral included pallbearers, a coffin, bagpipes, and 50 tombstones. The protest was held outside of the Chancellor Charles Reed's office.

A very large number of students were not admitted into the CSU system this fall semester, therefore each of the 50 tombstones represented 1,000 people who weren't accepted. The tombstones decorated the lawn, while faculty members and students gave eulogies and speeches expressing the magnitude of tribulations that have arose due to the cutbacks.

"The 2009-10 CSU system wide budget was cut by $564 million compared to the previous year," wrote Tim Lynch of the Daily 49er. "There were also some solutions offered. One was Assembly Bill 656, which would increase taxes to oil companies so the CSU system could receive some of the revenue generated."

The mock funeral was not the first, or the last of protests that CSU students, faculty, and community members will participate in. The day after the protest in front of the Chancellors' office, thousands of students and faculty members walked out of classes at UCLA, UC Irvine, UC Berkley and other schools. Tues. 29, there is another protest held at CSULB and other campuses such as, UCLA and Cal State Fullerton.