University students protest higher tuition - BRITTANY ALANA DAVIS, HERALD/TIMES

Some students protested tuition increases. Some lamented cuts to the Bright Futures scholarship program. And some said they were only after the extra credit. But when the 200 or so university students cheered, chanted and booed on the Capitol steps Thursday, they all seemed to have one common goal. “Being a student means you’ve sometimes got to speak truth to power, and let them know where you stand,” Rep. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, said in preacher’s cadence, drawing wild cheers from the crowd. Many of the students were en route to Tallahassee before dawn, on buses from the state’s 11 universities. Nearly three dozen attended from the University of South Florida. The rally came at a time when tuition has hiked 60 percent in four years, said Michael Long, chairman of the Florida Student Association.