Marking the seventh straight year of tuition increase, Penn State’s Board of Trustees approved a budget package for 2027-28 that will increase tuition, fees, housing, and food rates.

However, for the fifth straight year, the in-state tuition for commonwealth campuses will not increase for undergraduate students.

During a scheduled meeting at Williamsport’s Pennsylvania College of Technology, the trustees voted heavily in favor of the tuition increases, with only Jay Paterno and Matt McGloin voting against it.

The budget package includes a 2.5% tuition increase for in-state students, a 4% increase for out-of-state students, and a 1% increase for out-of-state commonwealth students.

Graduate student tuition will also increase, with in-state students seeing a 2% increase at University Park and 1% at Commonwealth campuses.

Out-of-state graduate students will see a 4% increase at University Park and Commonwealth campuses a 2% increase.

While not opposing this year’s increase, Brandon Short asked for systemic changes to help combat the school’s rising costs, according to the Centre Daily Times.

“In every meeting, we come and we’re faced with the same issue. … We all hold our noses and vote for the increase,” Short said. “But at some point … we’re going to have to think outside the box and try something new because doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity.”

According to Sara Thorndike, the increase will help balance the books, with $70 million in annual salary and benefit cost increases.

This included faculty and staff raises and higher healthcare.

Thorndike also said, according to the Centre Daily Times, had to make up for the estimated loss of nearly $79 million due to lower enrollment and revenue with the branch campus closures.

“The closure of the seven campuses is putting more of the administrative and the student support costs on University Park, which is appropriate because there are now more colleges, more activity from an enrollment perspective at University Park than at the commonwealth campuses,” Thorndike said. “This change is really accounting for the closure of those campuses and the budget allocation changes that needed to happen.”

Thorndike did explain, however, that the campus closure will start generating annual savings in 2028.