Shouting "Land Grant Mission -- Lower Tuition," protesters called upon the university administration yesterday to remember to provide affordable education to the students of Pennsylvania.

"This is an issue that is going to take all of us," former University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) candidate Jay Bundy told the assembled crowd. "The voice of the student is being stifled."

Gathering in front of Old Main, about 60 students held signs, chanted and signed petitions against higher tuition. Organized by the Public Issue Action Committee (PIAC), the rally hosted such speakers as UPUA presidential candidate Gavin Keirans, Bundy and organizer Alex Verget (senior-philosophy).

Verget, who walked from Harrisburg to State College in protest of Penn State's high tuition, spoke to the crowd about his journey.

"My walk was not to bring negative attention to Penn State, but to affirm my love of Penn State," he said.

Describing his 90-mile journey as "a symbol of the money trail going from Harrisburg to Penn State," and showing the crowd an Ace bandage he had carried in case of injury, Verget said Penn State must seek comprehensive answers for its budget woes.

"We can no longer accept Band-Aid solutions to tuition problems," he said.

Penn State spokeswoman Annemarie Mountz said rising tuition reflects growing university expenses that often outstrip general inflationary trends, along with lackluster support from the state.

"I think the reasons that tuition and the costs of undergraduate education are rising have a lot more to do with factors that students are not aware of," she said. "

Pat Daley (junior-English), former USG vice president, told the crowd that the university should publish tuition rates before students are required to schedule the next semester's courses.

"It's not fair that when we sign up for classes, we don't know what our tuition will be," he said.

Mountz said releasing the coming year's tuition rates early is not possible.

"Tuition levels are directly tied to the state appropriation," she said.

"We can't get the final tuition until the governor signs the state budget."

Daley also called upon the administration to be more open with Penn State's budget. Rally organizers delivered a petition stating their request to Penn State President Graham Spanier's office.

Spanier responded by e-mail to the signers of the petition, saying its claims were "somewhat misleading."

"While only approximately 10 percent of Penn State's overall budget comes from the annual appropriation from the Commonwealth, we think it is important to be transparent how those funds are spent by the institution," he wrote. "Penn State provides more budget information on its web site than any other college or university in the state."

Nicholas Genger-Boeldt (senior-psychology) also highlighted the proposed removal of the "Real Life Choices" program from the First-Year Testing, Counseling and Advising Program (FTCAP), saying the administration "decided to do away with the only time Penn State discusses the sexual assault problem on campus."

"[State Representative] Scott Conklin held up this campus' program as a model for other campuses -- now Penn state is wanting to regress on this," he said. "It's a really weird time."

PIAC President Tina Brazil said she was pleased with the rally's turnout, although she had expected "about a hundred" students to attend. Earlier estimates had put the projected attendance at 2,000.

In closing, Verget said the university needs to remember its responsibility to students as a land-grant institution, and that students need to take action in standing up for their rights.

"The university is afraid of us," he said. "It scares them to see what happens when we unite around a cause."