HARRISBURG -- Alumni, employees and friends of Penn State rallied in the Capitol building's rotunda yesterday to convince legislators to give more money to Penn State next year.

"We thought we'd beat the drum for Penn State today, literally and figuratively," Penn State President Graham Spanier said during the rotunda rally. State appropriations, Spanier said, "help keep the cost of tuition down and provide great services for the state."

Some of those services are through the College of Agricultural Sciences, which does research for the state. The college is in danger of layoffs if it does not receive requested funding.

Gov. Ed Rendell has proposed a 1.6 percent increase in funding for the university, even though Spanier has requested an additional 6.8 percent in funding. The university received $341.9 million from the state last year.

Rendell's proposed budget does not include increasing appropriations for the college's research arm, said Dennis Calvin, associate director of cooperative extension.

The consequences of this would "definitely impact state agriculture and Penn State's ability to help agriculture producers," he said.

Robert Steele, dean of the College of Agricultural Science, said layoffs in the college are likely if appropriations aren't changed.

"If you have flat budgets and they're not keeping up with cost, then you have to downsize," he said.

He also said these items could only be funded by government money, not tuition, which is primarily used for teaching expenses.

"The [Penn State] trustees could double tuition, but it won't affect these line items," he said.

Penn State employees are also employed by the state and although they are allowed to attend, they are not permitted to lobby legislators for the university because it would be a conflict of interest, Calvin said. Instead, volunteers advocated for Penn State on the employees' behalf.

"I asked them one question: How do we put the needs of the university in order to make sure that we get a fair share of higher education support?" said Alain Hunter, a member of the Penn State Grassroots Network committee and of the class of 1973.

Todd Abele, spokesman for House Education Committee Chairman Rep. Jess Stairs (R-Fayette/Westmoreland), said a 1.6 percent increase is fairly low and a 6.8 percent request is fairly high. When the bill for the budget is finally passed, the final increase should be between the two numbers.

Chairman of the Penn State Grassroots Network committee Les Firth said he understood the difficulty of creating a balanced budget. "There are a lot of demands on [legislators], and they have to balance it all out," he said.

Lieutenant Governor Catherine Baker Knoll had a simple, albeit unlikely, solution.

"Give them what they need," she said.