Hundreds of Penn State students stormed the state's capital city in hopes of restoring state funding to their university.
Gov. Tom Corbett proposed cutting the university's state funding by 30 percent for the second consecutive year.
The proposed cut for 2012-13 equals a loss of $64 million.
The Penn State Board of Trustees hiked tuition for the current year, and students anticipate another increase, Penn State student Ben Clark said from Harrisburg on Wednesday.
"It is important for legislators to sit down with their constituents and hear their concerns - and our concern is tuition," Clark said. "I think we accomplished a lot today."
Clark organized the Harrisburg bus trip that students from all satellite campuses, including Penn State Altoona, united for.
Anticipated tuition hikes will hurt Altoona students especially, Rep. Rick Geist, R-79th District, said.
"Average family income is much lower in Altoona than State College," said Geist, who ate dinner with students including Clark after their day of lobbying.
Geist said the state has a responsibility to fund Penn State because it is a land grant university.
"I need to look out for the Altoona kids," Geist said. "But it will be a battle. We are working with limited resources."
While Geist signed the students' petition to increase state funding, it remains unsigned in the office of Rep. Mario Scavello, R-Monroe, who wants the university to be held to open records laws.
The state-related universities: Pitt, Penn State, Lincoln and Temple, are largely exempt from Right to Know laws.
