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LARAMIE — The University of Wyoming Board of Trustees voted Friday to raise student tuition by 4 percent in the 2016-17 academic year, with half of the revenues generated by the increase going to faculty and staff compensation.

The action is in line with a policy adopted last year calling for ongoing tuition increases of 4 percent annually, subject to modification by the board each year, as a way to provide predictability for students while meeting anticipated cost increases to maintain and enhance UW’s quality of education.

Even with those increases, UW’s tuition for resident undergraduates will remain the lowest among the nation’s 173 public doctoral degree-granting institutions, meeting the Wyoming constitutional mandate that UW tuition remain “as nearly free as possible” for residents.

The 4 percent tuition increase amounts to $75 per semester for full-time resident undergraduate students and about $285 for nonresident undergraduates.

The increase is estimated to generate about $2 million. Of that amount, $1 million will be devoted to employee salaries.

The other $1 million would be distributed in this manner: $500,000 to academic unit support budgets, $250,000 to UW libraries and $250,000 for information technology.