All hail to Pitt. The University of Pittsburgh is planning on raising tuition by 4 percent this fall.

The tuition figure endorsed on June 18th by the school trustees' budget committee overshadows nearly 32,000 students in Oakland and on Pitt's branch campuses in Bradford, Greensburg, Johnstown and Titusville. This means full-time students from Pennsylvania would pay a base tuition of $5,884 a year, while out-of-state residents would pay $12,918.

The University of Pittsburgh said the increase was the smallest since it enacted a 3.8 tuition hike in 1989. Final adoption is expected in the coming weeks, at the time of this writing.

Pitt, in line of other universities, has reveled in a stock market cornucopia. On the 18th, the school citied the market and a boost in gift-giving as reasons why Pitt's endowment value reached $720 million this year, $130 million or 22 percent greater than a year ago.

According to a nationwide survey released by the Chronicle of Higher Education in February, Pitt's endowment is ranked 44th largest -- between Boston College (43rd) and Southern Methodist University (45th). Harvard had the largest endowment: $10.9 billion. Pitt is at $652 million.

The university plans to use some of that money to continue designing its planned $60 million convocation center and do early work on their campus construction projects announced this year. Pitt also hopes to finish wiring its 5,000 dormitory rooms for access to the Internet.

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