People who worked at Chico State University this school year won't be working there in the fall, but officially these aren't layoffs.

Friday Dennis Graham, Chico State's vice president for business and finance, told a meeting of the campus budget committee the university has not issued any lay-off notices and doesn't plan to send any out.

However, there are already some people who have been advised their jobs are history.

Provost Scott McNall, who will also be interim president of the university when current President Manuel Esteban retires, said some people teaching on single-semester contracts have been told their contracts will not be renewed.

Under their contract, their employment at Chico State stops at the end of the current academic year. So not renewing those contracts is not technically the same thing as laying anybody off.

While the budget picture continues to be anything but firm, Graham said, given the figures he now has, it looks like about $2.7 million will be cut from the faculty budget for the 2003-2004 academic year.

"Any reduction in faculty is likely to come out of the part-time faculty instead of the tenured faculty," said Arno Rethans, vice provost for planning and resource allocation.

McNall said, at least in some cases, full-time tenure track faculty positions that are open due to retirements will go unfilled or the replacements will be delayed, to create some budgetary savings.

If the budget proposal released this week by Gov. Gray Davis is followed, according to Graham, Chico State's $120.4 million annual budget will be cut by just under $16 million.

However, the governor's budget plan calls for a 25 percent increase in student fees, which would add almost $6 million back into the budget at Chico State, making the effective cut just under $10 million.

On top of that, the campus has been trying to conserve all the money it can, and, according to figures provided by Graham, the university has saved about $2 million to apply to the cut, which brings the final figures down to about $8 million. That works out to a bottom line budget cut of about 6.67 percent.

Even these numbers are written in smoke.

Graham said there is a persistent rumor that the state Legislature may cut an additional $70 million from the California State University system. Chico is one of the system's 23 campuses.

If that cut should happen and the campus gets its usual pro rata share, according to Graham, that could slice another $3.5 million from the school's funds.

On the other end of the equation, this week the CSU Board of Trustees deferred making a decision on the 25 percent student fee hike.

McNall said the trustees will probably vote on a fee hike later this summer and it could even be higher than planned.

Graham said the university is trying to hold the budgets cuts to faculty to a total of 5 percent, and since the overall percentage cut is higher, the non-teaching parts of the budget will be taking a proportionately larger hit.

The vice president for finance distributed a list of what the hits would mean to the various programs under his direct supervision.

Five full-time positions would be lost in custodial services, and this comes in the face of the recent opening of the new Yolo Hall. So instead of increasing staff for the new building the custodians will have to cover all the campus, plus Yolo Hall, with fewer people.

The University Police Department would face roughly a $100,000 cut out of its $1 million budget.

The currently anticipated cuts mean fewer faculty may have to teach larger classes, the classrooms may be cleaned less often, and perhaps there will be fewer campus police officers.

"How much of a ghetto are we going to make this place?" asked Paul Person, a professor in the political science department.

"How many students can we accommodate and still provide the services our students need and deserve, and the faculty needs and deserves?" he continued.

"At some point we have to say to the governor we can't afford to take more and more students without the finances to serve them," concluded Person.