Programs designed to get the state's under-represented minority students into college are being scaled back across California as administrators brace for anticipated funding cuts.

And officials warn even more of the outreach programs could be eroded if cuts suggested in Gov. Gray Davis' budget plan are approved.

"The programs that were set up to deal with the most needy students have been targeted for higher cuts, and I think that's very unfortunate," said Michael Aldaco, assistant vice president for student development with the University of California.

Nothing is certain in California's budget deliberations, but Davis has suggested cutting UC outreach funding by as much as 50 percent -- about $33.3 million -- this fiscal year. Last year, UC lost $4.4 million in outreach funding, which helps pay for a program that offers online advanced placement courses to students who do not have access to the courses at their high schools. The cut to UC outreach would total $37.7 million over two years.

Davis also has proposed cutting California State University outreach funding by $12.5million. The cut coincided with CSU plans to retool academic assessment outreach programs intended to curtail the number of students who arrive at the university unprepared for college-level work.

Mack Lovett, assistant vice president for instructional services at California State University, Hayward, worries that the university's $871,948 budget that supported two of those assessment programs -- PAD, or Precollegiate Academic Development, and CAPI, or Collaborative Academic Preparation Initiative, will be reduced significantly.

Both programs prepare young teenagers for college by working with public school teachers or tutoring students, among other efforts.

"It's very important for us," Lovett said. "The impact will be great."

California Community Colleges also are being forced to scale back their outreach efforts in anticipation of a proposed $285 million systemwide cut that would affect everything from the number of courses colleges could offer to student services available on campus.

Several proposals in the Legislature would restore all or some of those proposed cuts, and administrators are waiting to see which proposal is approved.

Still, several colleges already have reduced their outreach offerings in anticipation of tight times ahead. For colleges and universities, outreach is a broad-reaching term that covers everything from the brochures colleges publish to advertisements posted on billboards that entice students to enroll.

Of more concern to educators, however, are cuts to targeted outreach programs that operate in schools and colleges across the state. Those programs offer mentoring and intense academic preparation to individual students, most of whom are from minority groups -- including Latinos, blacks and American Indians -- that are underrepresented on college campuses.

Aldaco oversees two of UC's significant outreach efforts -- MESA and the Puente Project. Both are national models for student outreach that are designed to give members of underrepresented minority groups help to get into and succeed in college.

MESA, an acronym for Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement, is intended to bolster the numbers of underrepresented minority students who earn university degrees in science and math. Puente, which is Spanish for "bridge," targets Latino students to encourage them to attend college then return to their community as leaders and mentors for future students.

The governor's proposal would cut funding to those programs, and to UC's Early Academic Outreach Program, by 50 percent -- about $13 million, Aldaco estimates. EAOP, which operates at every UC campus, targets students as early as elementary school and offers mentoring and academic enrichment programs, including summer programs at the campuses, to prepare students for UC admission.

Aldaco said the programs serve about 100,000 students statewide and their track record is impressive.

Between 30 percent and 40 percent of the students who participate in the programs are eligible to attend UC branches. Students must have strong grades and standardized test scores, and complete a specific regimen of high school courses, in order to be eligible for UC admission.

Aldaco said the number of outreach students who proceed to UC is about 10 times higher than the number of Latinos and blacks statewide who are eligible to attend UC after high school graduation alone.

"We produce about 38 percent of all the black and brown students that enroll (in UC) as freshmen," Aldaco said. "... So if you get half the money, you can support half the students. That's 50,000 students that could be harmed and no longer provided for."

Maintaining diversity

Outreach efforts have taken on added importance in the UC system since 1998, when race-based preferences were banned in admissions policies. Targeted programs are one way the university system has worked to maintain diversity on campus.

Dueling budget proposals in the state Legislature leave the fate of UC's outreach funding in question. An Assembly version of the budget would restore all outreach funding, although a Senate version supports the 50 percent reduction.

While the cuts are far from final, the effects already are being felt. College of the Sequoias, a community college in Visalia, already has decided to end its MESA program because it cannot afford it, said Sally Montemayor, outreach coordinator for California Community Colleges.

"There are colleges across the state in anticipation of scale-backs that have already given out their layoff notices to staff for those programs," said Montemayor, who oversees outreach programs for the 108-school community college system.

She said it is hard to estimate the total funding cut to community college outreach, but colleges statewide are scaling back outreach activities -- including informational visits to high school campuses -- as part of overall efforts to curtail spending.

Programs that help students transfer into four-year universities also will be affected, she said.

Montemayor said the decrease in outreach activities will have devastating effects on underrepresented student populations. Outreach efforts, she said, are trying to create a "college-going culture" in populations historically lacking on college campuses, and those efforts will be hampered.

"It's a shortsighted action to cut those programs," she said.

Jennifer Aries, spokeswoman for the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District, said the district's advertising budget may shrink by half -- making it a little harder to spread the word about its two colleges, Chabot College in Hayward and Las Positas in Livermore.

The district no longer will pay for advertising, except in high school newspapers, she said.

But the district will not stop telling the public about registration opportunities and other programs. Although the colleges are offering fewer classes in light of budget cuts, the district must keep in touch with the community. Community colleges receive extra dollars from the state for awarding more degrees and increasing transfer rates to four-year universities, among other measures.

"You'll probably see us out in the community more," Aries said, adding that staff will speak to groups to raise awareness about college.

The $12.5 million proposed cut to outreach programs at the 23-campus CSU system is not as deep, but it still represents a significant hit. A Senate budget proposal would restore $2.5million of those funds.

Allison Jones, CSU's assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs and student achievement, said the system spends about $80 million a year on outreach programs.

About $14 million was dedicated to the CAPI and PAD programs, he said.

Reconfiguring assessment

Even before the proposed cuts, CSU had been working to reconfigure its early academic assessment programs, including CAPI and PAD, so they reach more of the state's high school students. The CAPI program, for instance, was offered at only 180 high schools in the state, including all Hayward high schools and those in San Leandro, San Lorenzo and Oakland.

The new effort will be offered in every California public high school -- about 944 in all. It will test 11th-graders' writing and math ability, and those with low skills will be able to participate in targeted classes and other programs during their senior year intended to bring them up to college-level work.

Under the governor's proposed cut, CSU would have about $4 million to administer the new early assessment program, but high schools also are expected to pick up some of its cost.

The testing program is part of CSU's outreach efforts but also gets to a systemwide mandate to reduce the number of students who enter CSU campuses in need of remedial coursework in English and math. More than half of the freshmen who entered CSU in 2002 needed remedial courses in those subjects.

At Cal State Hayward, nearly two-thirds of incoming freshmen needed remedial coursework in math and English. In most cases, students spend a year brushing up on their skills.

CSU's goal is to reduce the need for basic skills courses to 10 percent by 2007.

Cal State Hayward's Lovett said he is concerned that he will not get as much money to reach out to the high schools.

"We're not going to give up because the funds aren't there," he said. "But it will make it much, much harder or virtually impossible than if we had the money."