They came from all over the state to make their case in Sacramento.
Many are deeply in debt, some have families to support. But none of them were asking for work -- most have at least one job already.
What they wanted from state legislators was an end to the fee hikes at California colleges and universities that have, by some accounts, priced thousands of students out of the higher education market.
"We're literally living from bounced check to bounced check," said Fresno State senior and California State Student Association chair Stacey Green.
Green was one of nine students -- four from community colleges, three from California State Universities, and two from University of California schools -- who told their stories before the Assembly Education Finance Budget Subcommittee Tuesday afternoon.
The eight-member committee is considering whether to approve proposals to raise fees next year for all three systems -- by 10 percent at CSU and UC schools, and by $2 a unit at state community colleges.
If they don't approve the fee increases, administrators from each system said, the legislature will have to provide more money for higher education than the modest increases proposed in Gov. Pete Wilson's budget.
After a report from the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office recommending the fee increases, the committee heard from students.
The students told legislators that fee increases have driven students out of schools, and lengthened the time it takes to earn a degree for those who remain.
While fees have risen, the services available and the quality of education received in California colleges and universities have declined, they said.
Palomar Community College student Merril Tyler, 32, told the committee that an injury four years ago ended his career as a construction worker. After a one-year wait to become eligible for financial aid, the father of three said he was able to return to school and now plans to transfer to a CSU school as a political science major.
"My oldest is in junior high school right now. I'm worried about what will happen when it's time for her to go to college," he said. "What I'd like to do now is urge you to roll (fees) back or freeze them where they stand."
Assemblymember Willard Murray, D-Paramount asked community college student Shannan Velayas where funds for higher education could be found. Velayas drew a blank.
"If you think of anything, will you write me?" Murray asked her.
"We hope you get through college and get out there and start paying higher taxes," said committee chair Denise Moreno Ducheny, D-San Diego, thanking the students for their comments.
Ducheny has firsthand experience managing higher education finances, having served on the San Diego community college district Board of Trustees before being elected to the Legislature last June.
CSU students focussed on the contributions students make to California's economy, both as consumers and as part of a well-educated workforce that attracts businesses to California.
When relocating, the first thing businesses look for is an educated workforce, said Maria Bushey of Chico State. But given the current commitment to higher education in California, "The only factory that would come to California right now is a Top Ramen factory, because that's what students here have to eat," she said.
"Silicon Valley did not spring up in a vacuum," agreed Humboldt State student Eric Mitchell. He put the drop in enrollment CSU system-wide since 1990 at 40,000 -- a figure also cited in a CSSA press release. Mitchell said he has borrowed $12,000 to finance his education.
Stacy Green -- living from bounced check to bounced check -- said she expects to be $18,000 in debt by the time she attains her bachelor's degree. By the time she picks up a master's degree and a Ph.D., she said, she will probably be close to $100,000 in debt.
"You cannot force people into debt so they can be educated," she told the committee.
Instead of going after the usual fee increase culprits -- the CSU Board of Trustees, the UC Board of Regents, and Gov. Wilson -- Green said that legislators had broken a series of promises on fee increases and had failed to make higher education a priority.
"We have been absolutely forgotten in the discussions that have gone on so far," she said.
Forgotten, she seemed to suggest, for reasons of class: "I live off of less than $7,000 a year. That's probably a month's salary for some of the people who work in this building (the Capitol)."
And race: "I'm a first-generation college student. Many people who look like me (people of color) are being forced out of the system."
Green closed her remarks by thanking the committee for hearing students' perspectives.
"We appreciate that after five years of trying to educate the Legislature, you've finally found the time to listen to us," she said.
Ironically, most of the committee members -- all of whom were present for the Legislative Analyst's Office report recommending fee increases -- had slipped away by the time the CSU students took the stage. Only Murray, Ducheny and Barbara Alby R-Folsom remained.
Ducheny told UC students Andre Quintero and Naomi Falk, who spoke last, that many members had other events scheduled. The hearing, she reassured them, was being broadcast over closed circuit television to member's offices.
Ducheny staffer Curtis Richards said that the budget committee will make a decision on fee levels by mid to late May, pending revised budget figures from the governor's office.