WASHINGTON, D.C. — Many Pennsylvania students were among the inaugural protesters who swarmed the nation's capital Saturday.

There were plenty of supporters of President George W. Bush on hand, of course, but the protests — said to be the largest at any inauguration in years — were of special interest to college students.

Justin Brousse (sophomore-meteorology) was part of a group of 15 students who pooled together and rented a van to drive to Washington. They spent some of their time at the Navy Memorial, where anarchist groups were climbing flagpoles and trying to cross police barriers.

"More and more cops kept showing up, and that was where the kids got maced. We felt that it was kind of sketchy," Brousse said. "We didn't want to get caught in anything bad and we left before the parade started."

An official, organized protest, Voter March, began in the morning at Dupont Circle. It brought together a diverse group of people who said Bush — who got fewer votes than Al Gore but won in the Electoral College — stole the election.

"Everybody's concerned about the fact that we voted for Gore and Bush is president," said Tancrede LaMontagne, a student at the Lancaster Theological Seminary in Lancaster.

Paul Eisenstein (freshman-human geography), secretary of the Penn State Campus Greens, went to watch the Dupont Circle rally, and had mixed reactions to it.

He agreed that there were legitimate problems with the outcome of the election, but was put off by some of the slogans the demonstrators used.

"Sometimes it bothers me. One guy had a sign that said 'Republicans suck' and he's basically saying that Republicans are bad people, which is not true," Eisenstein said. "They've got their ideological beliefs for a reason, just like we Greens have."

The demonstrators came together under a wide spectrum of causes, including civil rights, the environment, campaign finance reform and corporate globalization.

Although preparations were compared to recent protests of the World Trade Organization in Seattle and Washington and of the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, there were only scattered skirmishes with police.

Washington Metropolitan Police reported only five protest-related arrests Saturday.

Deborah Golden, a 1995 Penn State graduate, roamed the city as a legal observer, looking out for protesters who had trouble with law enforcement.

"I'm very concerned that the police are not going to respect the rights of the demonstrators," Golden said, as she rode the Metro to investigate a reported problem at 14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.

Although peace prevailed in most places, there were occasional scuffles with police.

Along the parade route, a mass of protesters burst through a police barricade at 7th Street to get closer the parade, several witnesses said. They were part of a group who booed the new president as his motorcade rolled toward the White House.

Danny Yavuzkurt (freshman-Information Sciences and Technology), who said he was generally dissatisfied with the election outcome, wandered around several of the protests near the parade Saturday.

He and another student ended up in a crowd of people along Pennsylvania Avenue when Bush's limousine drove by.

"That was the highlight of the day, when we knew we were actually yelling at the object of our chanting," Yavuzkurt said.

Along E Street, a mother and daughter from Philadelphia held picket signs protesting the ballot counting process in Florida.

"We've tried to stay away from the trouble," said Martha Swartz, a veteran of the 1960s student demonstrations.

Swartz paused when she tried to explain what she thought of the day's protests.

"Well, there were lots of great signs," she finally said.

Some slogans on signs included: "Supreme Court injustice," "It's the hypocrisy stupid," "500,000 people can't be wrong," and "Don't blame me, my vote didn't count."

A Penn State-made sign earned some notoriety, Brousse said.

Student Robyn Stephens made a poster that said, as Brousse recalled it: "The most serious threat to democracy is the notion that it has already been achieved."

A man held onto Stephens' sign and climbed a flagpole to burn a black flag, as police officers and photographers watched, Brousse said.

With some roads and Metro stations closed, navigating the streets of Washington became a challenge.

John Hoaglund, a researcher in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, helped organize a carpool of protesters from State College. Hoaglund, along with his wife and children, followed a three-mile protest march from Dupont Circle to the Ellipse, near the White House.

He said it was wrong to portray all the demonstrators as flag-burners or vandals.

"Unfortunately, for the rest of us, it kind of lumps us all in the same category," Hoaglund said. "It almost says you can't be a rational person if you have opposing views to the Republican Party."