A 3 percent annual tuition increase across the State University of New York system was approved by student representatives from the system’s 64 schools on Saturday at a conference in East Syracuse.

The SUNY Student Assembly voted 50-10 in favor of the resolution, intended to help alleviate the 30 percent budget cuts all state agencies are facing. The state legislature and the governor need to approve the resolution before it can go into effect.

Tuition for SUNY four-year colleges and universities has been frozen since 2003 at $4,350 per semester. If approved, the hike would give SUNY its first rational tuition policy — one which increases gradually and consistently — in its 60-year history.

David Belsky, director of communications for the SUNY Student Assembly and a 2008 Binghamton University graduate, said the largest shortcoming of the current irrational tuition system is the greater financial burden placed on some students and not others.

“We think the past has been unfair to students,” Belsky said. “We entered this ridiculous system where we have to make up for the last five or six years.”

Belsky said that an increase was inevitable and that the Assembly was charged with choosing the best method of implementation.

Michael McGoff, acting BU vice president for administration, said the University had yet to be informed how much of a hit it would take in the next round of budget cuts, but that the revenue it’s losing needs to be replaced from somewhere. If the University is forced to make cut backs, he said academics would be the highest priority.

Construction projects, including the East Campus Housing and Old University Union ventures, are unaffected by budget cuts. Funding for SUNY construction comes from a separate fund that’s supported by bonds.

Binghamton University juniors Josh Berk and Lars Faultich were appointed by Student Association President Matt Landau to the Assembly. In their second years as assemblymen, both voted for the resolution, but unlike last year did not formally bring the issue to BU student assembly to gauge community opinion. In an informal discussion with the Assembly before the conference, Berk said students were mostly supportive of a rational policy.

“It’s not really a tuition increase, it nears the rate of inflation,” Berk said. “Measured in real dollars, there is no increase.”

According to McGoff, 20 percent of state funding comes from Wall Street, intensifying the budget crisis. Belsky emphasized that a tuition increase is inevitable and that the issue before the Assembly was how to raise it.

There are concerns, however, that the Assembly missed the big picture in its decision, and that the increases could hurt students with financial aid needs.

“I think it’s much more complicated than what SUNY SA is saying,” Landau said. “Since all the money goes into a big pot that the state disperses out to college, if our tuition gets increased, that doesn’t mean Binghamton University will see benefits.”

A tuition increase also burdens participants in the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) and other aid programs. To allow more flexibility, a resolution enabling mid-year adjustments to state financial aid programs, already a feature of federal aid offerings, was passed.

The Assembly also is trying to change SUNY’s standing from a state agency to a state entity, thereby making it exempt from future budget cuts.