LONG BEACH – Will the California State University system be forced to raise tuition by 89 percent or to lose 111,000 students?

The two options were part of the worst-case budget scenario presented to Cal State trustees yesterday.

With the state expecting an $8 billion deficit next year, estimates call for up to a 20 percent funding cut for the 410,000-student Cal State system in the 2004-05 budget. That would be on top of two years of budget cuts already.

"We know it's not realistic, and nobody wants to see 111,000 students cut, but that's the size of what a 20 percent cut is," said Richard West, executive vice chancellor and chief financial officer of the 23-campus system.

The financial and political future of California is too fluid to make anything other than preliminary projections, West told trustees meeting here yesterday.

Still, many trustees reacted with alarm when the numbers flashed up on the screen.

The bad news potential included the loss of 6,709 faculty members, 9,290 administrators and 53,673 classes.

Trustees will send a proposed budget to the governor in October. Many said they did not expect the worst-case cuts to occur but they must be ready for whatever action is necessary when they see the governor's proposed 2004-05 budget in January.

The system already has absorbed a 12 percent budget cut for this academic year, and students are paying 40 percent more than they did last year. The nine-campus University of California system faces similar economic decisions.

Although CSU trustee Frederick Pierce IV of San Diego said he doubted the bleak projections would come true, he said he was still worried.

"The reality is, if the state can't provide for us what we need, we have very limited options," Pierce said. He recalled his days as a student at San Diego State during the 1980s recession when tuition shot up and class options were slashed.

"We don't want to repeat that experience," Pierce said.

More than half the system's 23 campuses have closed enrollment for their spring semesters, and CSU officials say they may deny admission to as many as 20,000 students this year. Both Cal State San Marcos and San Diego State have taken steps to limit enrollment the past two years.

In other action yesterday, the Board of Trustees voted unanimously to oppose Proposition 54, which aims to ban collection of data by race, ethnicity, color or national origin.

Trustees, student representatives and faculty members argued against the initiative, contending it would limit the institution's ability to help its students.

Trustee Ralph Pesqueira of San Diego at first advocated that the board should take no position on the measure. After listening to the arguments, Pesqueira publicly changed his mind and his vote.