"Lower tuition, sign the petition" was the chant heard yesterday as an activist from the Raise Your Voice group pleaded with students to sign letters to lower Penn State tuition.

About 20 people rallied on the steps of Old Main to bring attention to increasing tuition prices over the past few years as part of their Crime, Law and Justice 467 (Law and Society) course. Students were given this option instead of taking a final exam.

"We're a bunch of students who decided to form an activist group out of our class," Daniel Cummings (junior-sociology and crime, law and justice) said. "We have about 30 students that are involved in some capacity."

The group also gathered outside the Allen Street gates from 9 a.m. to noon yesterday with posters displaying slogans such as "Tuition high, minority enrollment low."

Students signed petitions that will encourage the administration to ask the state to appropriate more money to tuition.

"Over the past few years, Penn State has not been getting enough money from the state," Laura Guralnick (senior-sociology) said. "Costs have been steadily increasing while the amount of grants given to students has been decreasing."

By sending petitions to the state government, members hope the university will receive more state funding.

"We're sending the letters a few at a time so they can't throw them all away at once," Dana Gremaux (senior-crime, law and justice) said.

Three hundred petitions were signed in the HUB-Robeson Center, where the group has been since Monday, she added.

"We want to make students aware that they can make a difference," Cummings said. "People need to realize that this is an issue they can get involved in."

He added that he estimated more than 500 petitions would be signed by the end of yesterday.

Holly Shenk (senior-sociology), one of the founding members of Raise Your Voice, said although she is a senior, it is important to lower tuition prices for future generations.

"My personal goal is to expose this issue and encourage people to be leaders," she said. "People are supportive about the issue, they just don't know what to do about it."

Cummings said the group hopes to spread their message at the Council of Commonwealth Student Governments' rally in Harrisburg this spring.

"They are all the Penn State Commonwealth Campuses that want the state to appropriate money for tuition," he said. "The next step is to speak at the state level."

However, not all students feel tuition prices are unfair.

"Well, I think that other state schools have lower tuition, yet we still pay a relatively small amount for the caliber of education that we receive," Max Pell (sophomore-life sciences) said. "It has been rising a lot over the last few years though."

He said increasing tuition prices will not decrease student enrollment.

"It's possible for them to lower tuition, but I don't think they really have any need to," Pell said. "We've had record years in student enrollment recently and that shows that, despite tuition increases, people will still come here."