The Board of Trustees approved a $6.8 billion total operating budget for the 2019 fiscal year and a tuition freeze for in-state undergraduates at its Thursday meeting at Penn State Brandywine.

The motion to approve the budget plan recommended by the Board’s Committee on Finance, Business and Capital Planning passed unanimously. Full-time, lower-level undergraduates will therefore continue to pay $8,708 per student per semester. Out-of-state tuition will increase by 1.95 percent — the lowest increase in more than 20 years.

President Eric Barron cited aggressive cost savings as a primary reason for the stable tuition rate.

“Penn State ranks fifth among all 50 state flagship universities for the smallest overall in-state tuition increase over the last decade,” Barron said in a release. “This second consecutive tuition freeze illustrates the University’s commitment to access and affordability.”

“It’s an extraordinary accomplishment,” Chairman Mark Dambly said Thursday.

The Board approved its last tuition freeze — the first since the 2015-16 academic year — at its July meeting last summer.

The Board’s budget was supported by a two-percent increase in its general appropriation listed in the Pennsylvania Commonwealth’s $34 billion budget, which Governor Tom Wolf signed in June.

The trustees also approved the Student Fee Board’s recommended student initiated fee of $265 per student per semester. This total is a $2 decrease from the 2017-18 student fee, marking the first time it has been lowered since the founding of the Fee Board.