Penn State’s trustees approved a $307.1 million state appropriations request for 2015-16, a 6 percent increase ($9.4 million) over last year’s request, at their meeting at the Penn Stater today. Furthermore, Penn State will request $7.9 million to benefit a partnership between the state and university to stimulate Pennsylvania’s economy.

Penn State’s budget for the next operating year includes $53.5 million in increased spending. At its last meeting, the Board of Trustees approved a 2.99 percent tuition increase for in-state, and a 2.73 percent increase overall.

“One of our top priorities is student success, and keeping student tuition increases low while maintaining the quality of our academic programs and providing the high-value education that our students deserve is part of that success,” Eric Barron said.

The trustees also laid out a timeframe for when they will take a stance on the Freeh Report, approved renovation plans for East and Pollock Halls, and confirmed that the score will appear on the Beaver Stadium scoreboards. For the rest of the news, read below:

New Promotional Video

Hopefully, this bad boy gets a lot of play so we won’t have to look at students pretending to be way happier than they are while doing homework in Penn State commercials.

Barron debuted a new Penn State promotional video that regrettably displays a “Penn State Lives Here” screen at the end, but has cool imagery of the Nittany Lion shrine coming to life.

Check it out:

Barron’s Address

Barron tackled the second of his six points for university improvement in the same fashion that he did at the Schulykill meeting in July. He laid out a plan for Penn State to become an economic leader, hoping that Penn State can establish a “culture of entrepreneurship.”

You can read a full recap of the 50-minute address here.

Public Comment

The public comment session was moved to the end of the meeting today, and was an interesting departure from the usual comments the board hears about how it sucks at its job. One commenter, Navy veteran Richard Kutch, asked why the football team is not the field for the National Anthem. He said it took him five years to convince the athletic department to put the basketball team on the court to honor the country, and he sent letters to Joe Paterno, Bill O’Brien, and James Franklin pleading the same for the football team.

Another commenter, graduate student Stevie Berberick, said Penn State shouldn’t just be academic leaders, but a national leader in stopping rape culture. She was followed by Samuel Bernstine, an alumnus who actually praised Penn State’s progress. And the final commenter, Antone Aboud, addressed President Barron’s letter on civility, saying the better test might be whether Penn staters can discuss “in level tones” the role the Penn State football team should play in the community.