SCULPTED PROTEST ART

Perhaps the most compelling protesters at today's community college rally at the California Capitol were the ones that weren't breathing. They were the "missing student" statues created to represent the estimated 175,000 students not attending community colleges this year as a result of budget cuts and tuition increases implemented last year.

The statue from the Ventura County Community College District was there -- a male mannequin marked with the kind of stenciled lettering generally associated with cuts of meat marked on livestock. Among the labels on the mannequin: "poverty," "single parents," "waitresses" and "food stamps." Other mannequins were similarly outfitted in protest attire, including one that had been speared by a giant screw.

College students, the rally proved, haven't lost their particular talent for creative protesting.