A funeral procession will wind through Texas Tech University’s campus in Lubbock this week—complete with black-clad mourners, a eulogy and a horse-drawn carriage bearing an urn—but there will be no body to bury. Organizers say they are mourning something less tangible: the death of academic freedom in Texas.
Cameron Samuels, executive director of Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, said the funeral at Thursday’s Texas Tech University System Board of Regents meeting reflects grief shared by students across the state.
“This is not just symbolism but a true reflection of how students are feeling, that our universities are not what they used to be, that our degrees have been cheapened, that our courses have been erased,” Samuels told Chron on Monday. “We are not receiving the same education. We’re not receiving what we deserve as students.”…