The Martlet

Student groups and campus unions are gearing up to hit the streets on March 5 for the First Annual Funeral Procession for Public Education protest.

Organizers hope that the rallies planned at UVic and downtown will highlight what they say is the chronic underfunding of public post-secondary education by the provincial Liberal government.

“We want to draw attention to the fact that education is under siege in our province,” said Craig Ashbourne, protest organizer and chair of the Political Action Committee of CUPE 4163. “This year will be the first year ever that student tuition will be a larger source of revenue than corporate taxes in the province. I don’t think most people realize that funding per student has actually gone down from about $8,100 a few years ago to about $7,100 now.”

The protest will have two parts. The first, a rally at UVic in front of the McPherson Library fountain at noon, will collect petitions and letters, which will then be put into a coffin that is meant to symbolize the hopes and dreams of current and future students. After the coffin arrives downtown, at 3 p.m. it will be carried along a route from Centennial Square down Government Street until it is finally delivered to the legislature.

Representatives from the UVic Students’ Society, the Grad Students’ Society, the three main workers’ unions at UVic, representatives from Camosun and the opposition NDP, including NDP leader Carole James, are expected to attend.

“The government often tries to set people apart,” said Ashbourne. “What we want to show is that we’re all in this together — students, faculty, the university administration, workers. We are all affected by these cuts.”

Organizers say they chose a funeral-themed demonstration for both its memorable theatrical component as well as its symbolism for the death of public education.

The government has countered claims that it has underfunded post-secondary education by pointing to a 39 per cent increase in operating funding over the last five years, including a $244 million boost in the 2009/2010 budget presented last month. But Ashbourne says that these increases have not kept up with the increases in enrollment that universities have been expected to fulfill.

“If we continue to shortchange post-secondary education, it will not truly be public anymore if the public can’t access it,” he said.