The highly anticipated revision of the governor's budget was kinder to the state's public colleges than many administrators feared.

The so-called "May revise" didn't contain additional budget cuts to the University of California and California State University systems and even called for the restoration of about $305 million to California Community Colleges.

Community college Chancellor Thomas Nussbaum said the governor's newest proposal -- which would impose a cut of about $285 million on the 108-campus system as opposed to a previously proposed $530 million -- represents "positive movement."

"This is significant," he said. "It's going in the right direction, but we've still got a lot to do."

The state's universities were more jubilant with the governor's proposal.

"We breathed a big sigh of relief, because it could have been pretty bad," CSU spokeswoman Colleen Bentley-Adler said Wednesday. "There were rumblings we could have gotten hurt quite badly."

College officials, already considering tuition increases and severe program cuts to deal with millions of dollars in state cuts already proposed, had been awaiting Gov. Gray Davis' budget revision with trepidation, fearing a growing state deficit would trigger further losses. The state budget deficit is now estimated at $38 billion.

The early budget proposal relied heavily on program cuts, but the $95.8 billion spending plan Davis submitted to the Legislature on Wednesday relies on higher taxes and borrowing $10 billion.

While university and college officials were generally cheered by the revised budget, they caution the plan still has far to go before it is approved by the Legislature -- and more changes may be possible.

The uncertainty about the final level of state funding caused CSU and UC officials on Wednesday to postpone votes on tuition increases that will help them recoup some of the money from the cuts.

Davis has proposed cutting CSU's budget by $260 million and UC's by $360 million.

But university officials are also leery of several separate proposals floating around Sacramento that would impose even more cuts. Assembly Democrats, for instance, have a plan that would include an additional $70 million in cuts to CSU and an additional $80 million to UC. Still other proposals would impose additional cuts of up to $200 million on CSU and $400 million on UC.

The governing boards of both university systems were planning tuition increases of about 25 percent, but held off final votes until a clearer budget picture emerges.

CSU officials have said they may have to raise tuition by as much as 37 percent if more cuts are imposed, and Larry Hershman, UC's vice president for budget, said its possible UC tuition could be raised about that high if the Democrats' plan is approved in the Legislature.

Hundreds of students protested against the increases at CSU and UC meetings on Wednesday. The CSU board of trustees discussed the increases in Long Beach, while UC regents met in San Francisco.

UC students were especially raucous, chanting and clapping despite regents' requests for order. Regents quickly called a 10-minute recess while UC police cleared the meeting room and forced students outside.

UC President Richard Atkinson was absent from Wednesday's meeting after he required hospitalization for a fainting spell Tuesday night.

Atkinson collapsed during a dinner with UC chancellors and senior vice presidents and was taken to UC San Francisco Medical Center as a precaution.

UC spokesman Michael Reese said doctors performed several tests to determine why the 74-year-old Atkinson fainted, but results were unknown.

Atkinson was released from the hospital Wednesday afternoon, and is expected to be at the regents meeting today, Reese said.

Contact Michelle Maitre at href="mailto:mmaitre@angnewspapers.com ">mmaitre@angnewspapers.com .

"We're not just here for ourselves, we're here for the people who've yet to come."

CSU and UC officials said they will likely wait until the budget is completed -- hopefully by mid-June -- before voting on tuition increases. Officials said they want to give students and their parents as much prior notice as possible before imposing increases. The final decision could come during special meetings convened in June, or could be scheduled for the boards' regular meetings in July.

UC President Richard Atkinson was absent from Wednesday's meeting after he required hospitalization for a fainting spell Tuesday night.