“Where did the ”˜public’ go in public education?”

That’s what some SFU groups are asking as they prepare to hold a rally for public education at 3 p.m. on Wednesday (November 10) on the Burnaby Mountain campus.

According to a notice on the savesfu.ca website, students will raise a “debt wall” in Convocation Mall and post cards to Premier Gordon Campbell.

The Simon Fraser Student Society, the SFU Graduate Student Society, and the Teaching Support Staff Union are sponsoring the event, which will call for reducing interest on student loans to the prime rate.

In addition, the rally will press for a funding increase for the B.C. Loan Reduction Program and increasing the number of students eligible for this type of relief.

A key demand is for the provincial government to raise the funding formula per full-time-equivalent student attending SFU, according to a brochure being distributed in advance of the rally.

It notes that this formula has been frozen for 10 years. It also states that the average university tuition in B.C. for 10 courses has risen from $2,310 to $4,815 over the past decade. This is five times higher than the rate of inflation over the same period of time.

The sponsors point out in the brochure that tuition accounted for 23 percent of university revenues in 1997, whereas it has since risen to 38 percent.

The rally will also push SFU to introduce an “ethical donations policy”. This comes after a controversial $10-million donation to the university from Vancouver-based Goldcorp., which funded the university’s new Downtown Eastside arts centre.

Prior to the rally from 12:30 to 2:30 on Wednesday (November 10), there will be a panel discussion in the SFU Graduate Students Lounge (MBC 2212) on student debt and education financing. Speakers include sessional instructor John Henry Harter, student Jeff Knaggs, graduate student and TSSU member Myka Tucker-Abramson, and SFU communications grad Alison Hearn.