California's public universities are making plans for dramatic tuition increases because of new budget-cut proposals circulating in the state Legislature -- even greater than the 25 percent fee hike they were ready to approve next week.

"It is almost certain that California State University is going to take deeper cuts in the May revise" of the governor's budget proposal, CSU spokeswoman Clara Potes-Fellow said Friday, adding that tuition hikes at CSU could rise an extra 12.5 percent.

The governing boards of the University of California and CSU had been scheduled to vote Wednesday on raising undergraduate fees for 2003-04 by about 25 percent -- $795 and $396, respectively -- as proposed in the governor's budget in January.

But, in the strongest signal yet that California college students will be asked to shoulder at least some of those cuts next fall, both UC President Richard Atkinson and CSU Chancellor Charles Reed announced Friday that they had postponed the votes until June or July, when the full scope of cuts to the universities' budgets is clearer.

Gov. Gray Davis will release his "May Revision" to the budget Wednesday, and it is expected to contain at least $150 million in additional cuts to the universities.

UC officials have not yet said how much higher fees might go.

"It seems prudent to address these issues in a single action, rather than acting now and returning again in a few weeks for another vote -- an approach that could produce considerable confusion for students and their families," Atkinson said.

FEES RAISED LAST YEAR
Both systems raised fees 10 percent in the middle of the 2002-03 school year.

Additional cuts for UC could range from $80 million, as part of a $3.7 billion package of cuts agreed upon by Davis and the Legislature earlier this week, to a much deeper $400 million in cuts proposed by Republicans in a budget proposal unveiled April 29.

For CSU, the cuts could range from $70 million to the $200 million proposed by the Republicans.

"Their proposal, cutting an additional $200 million from us, on top of the $260 million that is already proposed in the governor's budget, would add up to a disaster for CSU," said system spokeswoman Colleen Bentley- Adler after the GOP cuts were first floated. "That's like wiping out a campus."

UC REGENTS TO MEET
UC's Board of Regents, which will meet in San Francisco, will still hear public comment Wednesday on the initial fee proposal, raising undergraduate tuition from $3,121 to $3,916 per year. Graduate student fees would rise from $3,301 to $4,156, and nonresident student fees from $3,491 to $4,416.

CSU's Board of Trustees, which will meet in Long Beach, will also hear public comment on fee increases. Fees there are proposed to rise from $1,572 to $1,968 for undergraduates, and from $1,734 to $2,082 for graduate students.

CSU has also mapped out three scenarios for dealing with $70 million in additional budget cuts. Besides the one that would hike fees by 12.5 percent, one other scenario would combine more modest fee hikes with budget cuts. A third would be to cut enrollment by 10,540 full-time students and lay off 1, 079 employees.

WASTEFUL SPENDING SEEN
Artemio Pimentel, president of the California State Student Association, which represents CSU's 407,000 students, said his group is concerned that CSU has not done enough to trim wasteful spending within the system.

Five hundred students and faculty are expected to rally at the CSU Board meeting Wednesday in opposition of fee hikes, he said, adding that fee hikes are devastating to students who are paying for their education out of their own pockets.

"It's very unfortunate the state has a policy of balancing the budget on the backs of students who can afford it the least," Pimentel said.