Tuition for 109,000 students attending Pennsylvania's 14 state-owned universities will rise this fall by 2.75 percent under a directive requiring the schools to pare millions of dollars from their operating budgets.

		Graphic: Tuition increase history

For the third straight year, the State System of Higher Education has kept its tuition increase to roughly the inflation rate, and system leaders said it's the fourth consecutive year the increases approved were half those imposed by other public university systems nationwide.

"We strive to offer our students a high quality, affordable education," board of governors Chairman Kenneth M. Jarin said in a statement after yesterday's vote. "This modest tuition increase will allow us to continue to do so."

Nevertheless, it also means students will have to dig deeper into their pockets in a state long weary of rapidly rising college costs.

Yesterday's vote raises the base 2007-08 tuition for an in-state resident attending full time by $139, to $5,177. The state system, the least expensive option among Pennsylvania's public four-year schools, has seen tuition rise by 46 percent over the last decade.

The system includes California, Clarion, Edinboro, Indiana and Slippery Rock universities in Western Pennsylvania.

Last week, Penn State University raised its base tuition from 4.3 percent to 5.5 percent across the 84,000-student university.

Trustees at the University of Pittsburgh are expected to set their school's tuition when they meet today.

During yesterday's meeting in Harrisburg, the state system board of governors also voted to raise by $50 the tuition technology fee for 2007-08. Full-time, in-state students will pay $175 and nonresidents will pay $264.

The resident graduate student tuition will be $6,214, up by $166, and nonresident graduate tuition will rise to $9,944, up by $266.

Full-time, nonresident undergraduate tuition will now cost $7,766 to $12,944, depending on the campus and program.

Under the new state budget signed this week by Gov. Ed Rendell, the state system received about $484 million toward its $1.3 billion operating budget -- a 3.5 percent increase. The system fared relatively well, but still struggles with rising costs from health care to utilities, spokesman Kenn Marshall said.

Even with the higher state appropriation and yesterday's tuition increase, the 14 universities will need to pare $18 million collectively in order to balance the budget.

"They may defer some maintenance projects. They may delay purchases of some new equipment," Mr. Marshall said. "It will be up to the individual universities to make those decisions."

The board's three student members initially favored a slightly higher tuition increase of 3 percent. That proposal was dropped for the 2.75 percent increase after board members agreed to a slightly larger technology fee.

"My worry is that we're going to get to the point where programs are going to start getting cut ... and that we are going to have students that are directly affected," said Joseph M. Peltzer, a Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania student and board member.