I didn’t go to any of my classes Monday. I skipped the two classes in which I have tests Friday to go to Des Moines.

No, I wasn’t hungover, and I didn’t play hooky to hit Jordan Creek Town Center. Instead, at 10 a.m., I boarded a school bus at the Memorial Union and headed for the State Capitol.

About 90 other ISU students did the same. Together with students from the University of Iowa and University of Northern Iowa, we totaled more than 300 students who gathered to protest budget cuts to the universities.

The atmosphere at the capitol was interesting. Students, mostly ambassadors or members of each school’s student government, buzzed about, wearing buttons that read, “STOP THE CUTS,” and attempting to lobby the legislatures.

The event sort of resembled a career fair, as most students dressed to impress, wearing suits or pencil skirts. The students could be associated with their respective colleges by the color of their clothes or buttons: ISU students wore cardinal red; UNI, purple; Iowa, yellow.

However, colors were the only way to distinguish the normally rival colleges. Whatever hard feelings the students had for each other were left at the door; we were in this one together. The cuts to the universities could affect the programs, class sizes and enrollment, faculty and tuition at all three schools, after all.

However, not every student came to protest the cuts. ISU College Republicans came to support the cuts or protest the protesters, holding signs that sang, “Trim the fat!” and, “You can’t spend money you don’t have!”

Maneuvering through the crowd that day to gather opinions and snap photos, I noticed a lot of faces too young to protest, with little bodies I would expect to be sitting in desks at 2 p.m. The dozens of elementary school children I saw weren’t playing hooky either. They were on a class field trip to the State Capitol, which just happened to coincide with the big kids’ protest.

A group of little boys noticed my ISU T-shirt. Half of them cheered, half of them hissed and shouted “Go Iowa.”

At such a young age, these kids have already formed an opinion about the Iowa universities. I would venture that a majority of them will end up attending Iowa State, Iowa or UNI one day.

Watching their little faces look up in awe at the dome of the Capitol overhead, I wondered how different the three universities will be when they go to college. Will they receive the same quality of education? The same reasonable class sizes, the same qualified professors and the same array of programs from which to choose?

One floor up, their seniors were on a field trip of their own to make certain they do.