Like other state-related schools' organizations, Penn State's Undergraduate Student Government members periodically travel to Harrisburg to lobby for student concerns.

Since USG President Mark Stewart and USG Vice President Merryl Werber took office last spring, USG members have traveled to Harrisburg four times -- once last summer, twice last fall and again last Tuesday.

At the University of Pittsburgh, the Student Government Board budgets money to its Governmental Relations Committee for a lobbying trip to Harrisburg each semester, said GRC Chairwoman Colleen McCake.

The Pitt Student Government Board is planning a trip to Harrisburg in the fall, said Bryan Bender, Pitt Student Government Board member. They hope to take 40 or 50 students with them in buses if possible, he added.

On March 23, about eight student leaders from Pitt plan to meet with their state legislators in Harrisburg for dinner and meet with other legislators the next day about bills they are interested in, Bender said.

The board members also sent a letter to Gov. Robert P. Casey asking for an appointment with him, Bender said. Casey normally either meets with students or has Lt. Gov. Mark Singel meet with them, Bender added.

USG members tried to meet with Casey last week without an appointment but were turned away, Stewart said, adding that they met with one of Singel's staff members.

Members of Temple's Student Government also traveled to Harrisburg last Tuesday for the Senate appropriations hearings, said Jim Cawley, speaker of the General Assembly of Temple's Student Government.

Temple students spoke before the state Senate at 1 in the afternoon, and Penn State spoke directly afterward at 2:30.

Temple student government leaders try to contact state legislators on a semi-regular basis through trips to the capital and writing letters, Cawley said.

They try, like other state-related universities, to make sure the schools can maintain their mission of educating the working class of Pennsylvania, Cawley said.