STATE COLLEGE — Penn State's president wants to avoid raising tuition at midyear, but stopped short of promising against a rate hike as the university awaits its long-delayed state funding.

About $334 million in state subsidies for Penn State is stuck in legislative gridlock as lawmakers try to resolve differences on a bill to legalize and tax table games at the state's slot-machine casinos.

Penn State and leaders of the commonwealth's other state-related institutions — Lincoln, Pitt and Temple — said in a letter last month to top state officials that the funding held up for months must be approved soon or it might lead to unforeseen tuition hikes for the spring semester.

The spring bill at Penn State will be sent out soon, president Graham Spanier said.

"The last thing we want to do is raise tuition in the middle of the year," Spanier said Friday at a meeting of the university trustees. "That would really throw a loop to our students."