SAN FRANCISCO - In a worst-case scenario, the University of California could end up nearly doubling fees or turning away tens of thousands of eligible students if the state significantly cuts UC's budget next year, university officials warned at a board of regents meeting Wednesday.

The regents reviewed a range of options to deal with a state fiscal crisis that cut UC's budget by $424 million this year and may reduce it an additional 20 percent or $570 million next year.

The university already has raised fees by roughly 40 percent since last December, laid off staff, and allowed faculty salaries to fall far below market rates.

Wednesday was the first of three meetings over the next several months in which the regents will discuss the nine-campus system's budget. They likely will not take any action until January.

"We have already taken deep cuts affecting every aspect of the university," said UC President Richard Atkinson at his final regents meeting before he retires. "Additional state budget cuts will have a dramatic impact on the university's ability to meet its commitments to the people of California.

"What the university is today -- an institution that achieves the highest level of academic excellence, provides access to high-achieving students from all walks of life, and has a deep impact on the economy and quality of life in California -- that university is seriously threatened by this next year's budget."

To prevent the university from restricting enrollment to save money next year, Atkinson suggested a course of action UC has never seriously considered before: admitting more out-of-state students and significantly increasing their fees.

Over the past three years, the university's enrollment has grown 18 percent, while state funding has fallen 14 percent.

The Legislature has already indicated that it does not plan to fund enrollment growth of 5,000 new and continuing students projected for next year. In addition, the state Department of Finance notified all state agencies that they may have to cut their 2004-05 budgets by 20 percent to cope with an estimated $8 billion state deficit. That would result in the $570 million reduction in UC funding.

To make up that kind of money, UC Vice President for Budget Larry Hershman outlined scenarios he called "ludicrous" but necessary to consider if the university faces such a severe cut.

To make up the $570 million with student fees would require increasing annual undergraduate fees from $4,984 to $8,984. To make it up by restricting enrollment would mean turning away 60,000 new students, even though the university takes only 47,000 new students each year.

"That is staggering and in my mind totally unrealistic," Hershman said.

The solution will likely be a combination of options that could include increasing fees, restricting enrollment, reducing employee salaries or trimming the faculty. There could be further cuts in research budgets, academic support services, libraries, administration and maintenance, officials said.

The University of Michigan, a public university UC likes to compare itself to, admits 35 percent to 40 percent of its undergraduates from out of state, Hershman said. It charges each one roughly $25,000 annually. UC admits 5 percent to 6 percent -- or 7,000 -- of its undergraduates from out of state and charges each $19,600.

Using loose numbers, Hershman suggested that raising UC fees by $6,000 would generate $42 million. Increasing the number of out-of-state students would bring in even more money.

But campuses such as Berkeley and UCLA probably could not absorb any increase in enrollment from out of state because they are nearly tapped out already. And it is unclear, Hershman said, how much more out-of-state students would be willing to pay.

Other options the regents will consider include asking a portion of students eligible to attend a UC to spend their first two years at a community college. The university could also freeze freshman enrollment at the current level, which would mean turning away 1,000 to 2,000 students each year. The university already has 12,000 more students than it expected back in 1999 when it last updated its enrollment plan.

UC also could reduce the number of community college students it accepts. Earlier this month, the university returned 1,500 community college transfer applications for the winter term.

Regent Velma Montoya said that move violated the spirit of California's 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education, which promises a spot to all UC-eligible students.

Some regents chided the university for delaying by a year the opening of the system's 10th campus, UC Merced, in order to save $4 million.

That's a drop in the bucket compared with the hundreds of millions that went into developing it, said Regent Richard Blum.

"It's got to be one of the dumbest decisions I've heard in my life."

Several regents said the university must make it clear to the Legislature that it cannot afford to sacrifice quality.

"I think we should strongly take a stand that we won't be pushed any further," said Regent George Marcus.