The Board of Trustees met on Thursday in New Kensington.

By the Penn State Live release, you’d think they ignored the most important issue the university was facing: the drastic reduction in state appropriations. Veblen noted that Spanier’s speech was “much happy talk.”

But the university began releasing statements today about the plans for next year.

The board has accepted two budgets. The first budget is based on state budgets released by Governor Ed Rendell in March. That budget specified for a 4.5% tuition increase.

The second budget, based on the updated state budget Rendell released just last month, is both bleaker and more likely to be the actual outcome. It calls for a 9.8% tuition increase, more than double the original proposal.

Graham Spanier released a statement today about the university’s financial situation.

Here’s his explanation in short,

But the circumstances of our appropriation, the lack of an approved state budget, the need to send out tuition bills in a timely manner, and our commitment to maintain the quality of the educational experiences for our students has forced us to turn to a tuition increase that will be painful for many of our students and their families.

Graham is framing the issue well. He’s suggesting that the state is the reason for the unprecedented tuition raise. So, he hopes that if the student body were to realize what was going on, they will begin rallying against the state to recognize Penn State as public.

Remember, Dear Leader had also written a letter to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan calling Rendell out for not giving the university federal stimulus money. Other state politicians are pulling similar tricks. The Post-Gazzette reports,

Fourteen members of Congress from Pennsylvania today urged the Obama administration to reject Gov. Ed Rendell’s attempt to exclude the four state-related universities from receiving federal economic stimulus money.

People have started speaking out on Twitter but let’s bring it in… what will happen next?