The Penn State Board of Trustees today approved lower-division tuition increases ranging from 3.9 percent to 5.9 percent for the 2010-2011 academic year.

No members of the board, meeting at the Penn State DuBois campus, voted against the administration-recommended increases or against the overall university budget of more than $4 billion.

The lower-division tuition increases, which will affect freshmen and sophomores, will be 4.5 percent for out-of-state students and 5.9 percent for in-state students at University Park. At Penn State's other campuses, both in-state and out-of-state freshmen and sophomores will see an increase of 3.9 percent.

It was not immediately clear Friday exactly how tuition for juniors, seniors, graduate and doctoral students will be affected.

"I think it's so obvious ... that the administration and the board continue to wrestle with tuition, tuition increases and providing a quality education we all can be proud of," board Chairman Steve Garban said this morning.

He said it's a "difficult balance" to manage tuition rates and maintain the quality of a Penn State education. The university will see flat funding in 2010-2011 from the state government, which provides about eight percent of Penn State's overall budget.

Old Main's spending plan also includes maximum, merit-based salary increases of two percent for non-unionized Penn State employees. Their pay was frozen last year as a cost-containment measure.

"An additional 1.5 percent will be made available for the President's Excellence Fund to address special merit, market and equity cases," Penn State President Graham Spanier told the trustees.

StateCollege.com will continue to have updates from the trustees meeting today. Breaking news also will be distributed via Twitter at http://twitter.com/scnewsdesk.