CENTER VALLEY — Penn State University students face another tuition hike, though a smaller one than many of them had feared, as the school grapples with a $68 million cut in state aid.

The board of trustees voted Friday to increase annual tuition by 4.9 percent for in-state freshmen and sophomores enrolled at the main campus in State College. That represents a $700 annual increase to about $15,100.

Tuition will rise 3.5 percent, or about $900, for out-of-state freshmen and sophomores attending the main campus to about $27,200 a year. Tuition at satellite campuses will go up 2.9 percent for both in-state and out-of-state students.

The increases take effect this fall.

Penn State President Graham Spanier said the school did everything it could to moderate the tuition hike, including across-the-board budget reductions and a salary freeze, as it responded to the largest funding reduction in school history.

About 80 layoffs are expected to take place within the cooperative extension and agricultural research portions of the College of Agricultural Sciences, on top of the 80 staffers who took early retirement last winter.

“To say that it has been a tumultuous and unsettled few months leading up to this point would be an incredible understatement,” Spanier said.

The average annual increase in tuition will amount to about 3.8 percent, or $515, according to Penn State. Spanier called it “one of the lowest increases in the nation.” Two-thirds of Penn State undergraduates will see tuition increases of between 2.9 percent and 3.5 percent.

Trustees also approved the university’s $4.1 billion budget.