ALBANY - A key State University of New York board on Thursday approved tuition increases averaging 3.5 percent for community colleges, a move that will cost students an average of $100 a year.

The new tuition ranges from a high of $3,450 at Westchester Community College to $2,800 a year at Dutchess County, Monroe and Hudson Valley community colleges.

Erie Community College didn't raise its tuition.

The local boards of trustees at the two-year, mostly nonresidential colleges have previously approved the increases, said SUNY spokesman David Henahan.

He noted, however, that most students receive state Tuition Assistance Program grants. He said a typical TAP recipient pays $1,633 a year and TAP covers the full tuition of more than 24,700 students.

SUNY's 30 community colleges, run with local counties and cities, granted more than 30,000 degrees and certificates last year, Henahan said after the SUNY board's Executive Committee voted for the increases.

In 2004, more than two-thirds of the state's community colleges raised tuition by an average of $114 a year.

Several other community colleges have increased tuition since then.

The model SUNY advocates is for the state to pay a third of the community colleges' costs, the local governments another third, and students the remaining third. Tuition now accounts for 37.9 percent of the cost of a student in a community college.

Other approved tuition rates are: Adirondack, $3,130; Broome, $3,058; Cayuga County, $3,254; Clinton, $3,220; Columbia-Greene, $3,072; Corning, $3,350; Erie, $2,987; Fashion Institute, $3,292; Finger Lakes, $3,130; Fulton-Montgomery, $3,094; Genesee, $3,300; Herkimer County, $3,020; Jamestown, $3,350; Jefferson, $3,074; Mohawk Valley, $3,150; Nassau, $3,434; Niagara County, $3,192; North Country, $3,340; Onondaga, $3,280; Orange County, $3,100; Rockland, $3,200; Schenectady County, $2,890; Suffolk County, $3,256; Sullivan County, $3,360; Tompkins-Cortland, $3,325; Ulster County, $3,300.