OLYMPIA, Wash. — UW students joined the budget battles in the state capitol yesterday to lobby legislators to fund financial aid.

The state Senate originally invited students from across the state to speak personally about cuts to higher education, and the ASUW had planned to bring a large group. However, the Senate decided earlier this week only to permit comments on the proposed budget legislation, and students were discouraged from offering personal testimonies.

As legislators move to fill a $2.6-billion budget hole in which even the best programs might not get funding, students from other colleges throughout Washington testified to try to convince legislators that financial aid is one program they want to keep.

While Governor Chris Gregoire pledged to protect students’ interests in Tuesday’s “State of the State” speech, members of the Washington Student Association arrived before the House Higher Education Committee to drive their point home.

They pleaded to the legislators not to cut financial aid, work-study programs, the Washington Scholars program and the State Need Grant. In Washington state, the state provides more funding to the work-study program here than the federal government does.

Sarah Reyneveld, a UW law student and vice president of the Graduate and Professional Student Senate, testified on behalf of UW graduate students. Stressing the importance of state-funded programs — such as work-study — to graduate students, she said she’d lose one of the few financial-aid options open to graduate students.

Even though work-study is more common with undergraduate students, 14 percent of graduates rely on it, Reyneveld said.

Ann Daley, executive director of the Higher Education Committee Board, argued that higher education is a public good; it is the responsibility of the state to make higher education available to all, especially to low-income and middle-class families, she said.

Daley also said that state officials need to remain in control of tuition costs and try to keep them as low as possible and to keep accessibility as high as possible.

Her opinions, however, run contrary to the opinions of several Democratic lawmakers. In bills filed by Sen. Derek Kilmer (D-Gig Harbor) and Sen. Ken Jacobsen (D-Seattle), the authority to set tuition increases would transfer from the state legislature to the universities themselves.

With all variables considered — state financial aid, authority to set tuition rates and state funding to universities — the cost of education was at the forefront of Wednesday’s talks.

“The main concern is tuition,” said Jono Hanks, ASUW director of government relations and attendee at yesterday’s Olympia hearings, “[Tuition] concern is not just for today. It’s about the future, also.”

Reach contributing writer Sepideh Behzadpour at news@dailyuw.com.