Dozens of UC Berkeley students, faculty and staff gathered in front of Sproul Hall yesterday for the Mexican Day of the Dead holiday to mourn the "death of public education" and its impact on minority students at the university.

Members of Berkeley Students Against the Cuts, university employee unions and other members of the campus community marched from Upper Sproul Plaza to California Hall where they enacted a funeral for those affected by university budget cuts.

Organizers said the funeral motif was spurred by a comment UC President Mark Yudof made in a Sept. 24 interview with The New York Times Magazine.

"Being president of the University of California is like being manager of a cemetery: there are many people under you, but no one is listening. I listen to them," Yudof said in the interview.

Nelson Maldonado-Torres, an associate professor of ethnic studies who spoke to demonstrators outside Sproul Hall, said the demonstrations are a way to challenge the metaphor of the university as a cemetery.

"Today (is) just a day ... to dramatize the fact that the community's heavily invested in the fate of public

education," he said.

Shannon Steen, an associate professor in the campus department of theater, dance and performance studies, said the demonstration also aimed to show how budget cuts are affecting some students differently.

"What we wanted to do was to draw attention to the ways that the Latino and black student presence on campus is dying because of the budget cuts," she said. "The very students who would be most helped by a Berkeley degree or by a UC degree will be the ones who are most affected by the budget cuts."

She added that further action is planned for the Nov. 17 to 19 UC Board of Regents' meeting, though she could not offer details.

UC spokesperson Peter King defended Yudof's comment in an e-mail, saying the remark "was made in response to ... questions about the furlough program."

He added that organizers should direct criticism at state legislators.

"President Yudof was trying to say in a self-deprecatory way that he is less powerful than his title might suggest," King said. "I suspect most of those who are up in arms about the remark know this, but find it useful to their various causes to pretend that they don't."

Tags: BUDGET CUTS