SACRAMENTO California State University trustees will consider a 30 percent fee increase at their July meeting, a bigger hike than the one offered by Gov. Gray Davis in his budget proposal.

In a June 6 memo to campus presidents, CSU Chancellor Charles Reed said the higher fees could be accompanied by layoffs in faculty and staff and restrictions on enrollment that will cut the student population by 2 percent.

All three systems of higher education CSU, University of California and the community colleges have been struggling to cope with proposed cuts as California officials look to eliminate $38 billion in spending.

Davis proposed cutting $260 million from the CSU's $2.6 billion annual budget, and a 25 percent increase in student fees. CSU officials fear that could grow by another $69.5 million in the Legislature's version of the budget.

The 30 percent hike, which would bring in about $38 million, will be addressed by the trustees at their July 16 meeting.

Locally, Cal State Long Beach is bracing for its own $38 million drop in revenue. Increased fees will help, but probably not enough to avoid chopping 4 percent off the budgets of noninstructional departments for the 2003-04 academic year, said Robyn Mack, CSULB's associate vice president for Budget and Human Resourc es Management.

This could translate into longer lines and fewer options for students as areas such as administration, admissions, records, health services and even athletics are scaled back.

Mack said courses will not be cut, and no layoffs are planned. Still, some classes may have to accommodate more students as enrollment climbs without the benefit of extra revenue.

"We've heard the message loud and clear from Sacramento,' Mack said, "and that is 'Everyone will have to take their turn.''

The deadline for lawmakers to pass their version of the budget is Sunday, and the governor has until the end of June to sign the 2003-04 spending plan. Last year's budget wasn't signed until September.

But the CSU wants to give students some time to plan for the increase, said CSU spokeswoman Colleen Bentley-Adler. The increase would bring yearly undergraduate fees to $2,040.

"At this point, we have no plans to go higher than 30 percent,' she said.

The additional shortfall would be made up with employee layoffs and by limiting enrollment in the spring semester.

The University of California regents are in a similar predicament, she said, knowing they will have to raise student fees, but not knowing by how much.

The increase will hurt students who have been "facing fee increases left and right,' said Art Pimentel, chairman of the California State Students Association, which represents the 407,000 CSU students. "We had one in December, now we're looking at another 30 percent.'

Reed's memo includes strategies for reducing enrollment for the spring semester by the equivalent of 6,741 full-time students among the 23 CSU campuses.

The ideas range from accepting no out-of-state students to strictly enforcing academic disqualification guidelines.

If the final budget does include the $69.5 million in additional cuts, as many as 583 staff members and 496 faculty members could be laid off, Reed's memo said.

The UC regents will also consider a fee hike at their July meeting, but haven't specified how much more students will pay, said UC spokesman Brad Hayward.

UC officials have discussed raising undergraduate fees by $795 for the fall, he said, bringing the annual cost to $4,629 per year.

"The sad reality is that given the magnitude of the cuts we're talking about and our desire to protect the students' instruction from cuts, it's going to take a substantial fee increase,' Hayward said.

The UC system, which annually spends close to $3 billion, would receive $60 million less this year under Davis' plan.

The governor had proposed more than doubling the $11 per-unit fee for community colleges to $24, but legislators are proposing keeping the fee at $18 per unit.

Community college trustees have said $15 per unit is the maximum fee they'd be comfortable with, said spokeswoman Kirstin MacIntyre. Tuition at the 108 community colleges is set by the Legislature, not the trustees.

Legislators did return some funds to the community colleges for financial aid and outreach, she said.

"Whether it's $15 or $18, it's a tremendous educational bargain,' she said.