BLACKSBURG -- The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors voted unanimously Monday to increase tuition and room-and-board costs for in-state students by 8.4 percent.

Virginia Tech students living on campus currently pay $10,834 for tuition, fees and room and board. That figure will go up to $11,739 this fall.

That remains below the average cost for in-state students to attend four-year public colleges in Virginia, which was $12,259 last fall.

Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said the tuition increases are not unexpected and are part of a long-term plan involving the state and the university as it deals with state funding reductions totaling about $30 million since 2000.

Since those reductions began, tuition and fees for in-state students have increased more than 90 percent.

"It's part of a plan to try to dig Virginia out of a hole," he said. "Virginia has been underfunding higher education for close to two decades."

Room-and-board costs notwithstanding, in-state tuition and fees will increase by about 9.3 percent to $6,973 next academic year. Out-of-state students will see those same costs rise from $17,837 to $19,049 -- an increase of about 6.8 percent.

Jacob Lutz, chairman of the board's finance and audit committee, cited energy costs rising at the rate of about $3 million annually as one reason for the tuition increase.

The board also approved a request by the committee that the university make adjustments as needed in the event of unforeseen results from the Virginia General Assembly session. The session was extended earlier this month and a budget has not been agreed upon.

The increase is in line with the six-year plan Tech presented to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia last fall as part of the higher education restructuring act.

Virginia public colleges submitted different state-funding scenarios when estimating projected tuition increases for the 2006-07 academic year.

Tech's most optimistic scenario called for an increase in tuition and fees of roughly 7.9 percent and the most pessimistic projections included an increase of 16.6 percent.

Graduate tuition and fees will increase about 7 percent, from $7,977 to $8,540. Out-of-state graduates will pay $14,738, up from $13,769.

Monday's increases were more than last year's but less than in years past, when public universities throughout Virginia tried to make up for a tuition cut for in-state students and subsequent tuition freeze mandated by the General Assembly at the turn of the century.

Annual tuition rates went up nearly 15 percent for in-state undergraduates at Tech two years ago.

Despite the increases, Tech is expected to continue to rank among the cheapest for in-state student costs among its peer institutions nationally.

The Board of Visitors also approved several proposals for new academic programs and a new school of construction that will go to the state for approval.

If approved, the new school will be named after two alumni -- A. Ross Myers and John Lawson -- who made donations to create it. It would unite the building construction and civil and environmental engineering departments.

The academic proposals also will be sent to the state and, if approved, are expected to be in place in the fall. They include:

n A bachelor of arts program in humanities, science and environment.

n A doctorate program in geospatial and environmental analysis.

n A doctorate program in rhetoric and writing.

n A doctorate program in planning, governance and globalization and a doctorate in architecture and design research to replace the current environmental design and planning doctorate.