What began as a small protest at the University of Sao Paulo has turned into a major strike that has spread to two other public universities in Sao Paulo state.

Tens of thousands of students, professors and university employees are now backing the strike to demand more funding for education and protest a series of decrees issued by the state’s new governor and presidential hopeful, Jose Serra, that they say trample on the universities’ independence.

Nearly 300 students have been camped out in the dean’s office at the University of Sao Paulo for almost a month, singing protest songs and holding political rallies.

“When we first occupied the building, I had my doubts that the protest would last a day, let alone a month,” said Daniel de Oliveira, a 20-year-old sociology student who helped organize the strike. “But the movement is growing, and we’re prepared to stay here as long as it takes.”

Although a handful of professors are ignoring the protest and still teaching classes, many fear the vast majority of students will lose an entire semester.

The strike is a major challenge to Serra, a prominent centrist who ironically gained fame in the 1960s as a leftist leader of the University of Sao Paulo’s student union by heading protests against Brazil’s military dictatorship.

He is now a leader of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party, the country’s main opposition party, and is a strong candidate for its nomination at the next presidential election in 2010.

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