SACRAMENTO -- California's budget crisis has already kept some 90,000 students out of the state's community colleges, and hundreds of thousands more students will suffer the same fate unless public universities and colleges work together to forestall a looming enrollment crisis.
That's the grim prognosis from a study session Tuesday that brought representatives from California's three systems of higher education together to discuss the impact of budget cuts on college enrollments.

"We're in a very critical time right now," California Community Colleges Chancellor Thomas Nussbaum said in opening the session, held as part of the community college Board of Governor's regular meeting in Sacramento.

Representatives from University of California and California State University, as well as representatives from student and faculty groups and the state Legislature, met for the session.

Officials said unprecedented budget cuts have left the state in jeopardy of breaking a 40-year-old promise to give every California student a space in college. State officials, trying to plug a $38 billion deficit in the next two years, have passed deep cuts to every system of higher education.

Student fees have gone up, and programs and services are being reduced.

The cuts hit at a crucial time for the state because a massive wave of high school students are flooding college campuses.

Patrick Perry, vice chancellor of technology, research and information systems for the community college system, said the effect of the cuts are already being felt.

Community colleges have cut course offerings and increased class sizes across the state, and he estimated that enrollment dropped by about90,000 students last spring.

Perry said the loss was twofold: Not only did colleges lose about 40,000 new and returning students, but system enrollment also didn't keep up with normal expected growth it has seen, for an additional loss of about 50,000 students.

At the same time, UC and CSU officials are restricting enrollment at their campuses. The state has said it won't provide additional money next year for future enrollment growth.

For CSU, that means as many as 29,000 students will be turned away this spring, said David Spence, CSU's executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer.

And UC last week announced it wouldn't be able to consider applications from 1,600 new freshmen and community college students who were hoping to transfer in this winter.

Officials are also trying to determine how they can continue to accommodate new students.

One option UC regents will consider will be reducing the number of new students who will be allowed to enroll next year.

"This is the first time in my 22-year career that we are saying we may no longer be able to guarantee students a space," said Dennis Galligani, UC's associate vice president for student academic services.

Officials also warn that the budget crunch will only deepen. The state Department of Finance sent letters this week to officials in all three higher education systems, asking them to draft scenarios for dealing with a 20 percent budget reduction next year.

While such a cut is far from final, Richard West, executive vice chancellor for the CSU system, said a 20 percent reduction would equate to $500 million and would necessitate further fee increases or enrollment reductions or "some combination of the two."

The cut is "like the budgets of San Diego, Long Beach and Pomona (campuses) combined," West said.

Pirikana Johnson, a Compton College student and president of the student senate, said the budget crunch is already forcing students who would normally enroll in UC or CSU campuses into community colleges, and "they're grabbing classes that would otherwise be accessible to traditional community college students."

Further cuts will only make matters worse, he said. "We talk about budget cuts, but in a sense, it's more like a budget murder."