State university and industry leaders meeting at UC Davis on Friday emphasized the importance of investing in higher education during the first of four town hall gatherings to address budget cuts aimed at California campuses.

State Sen. Mike Machado, D-Linden, who had planned to lead the discussion, made brief comments before returning to the Capitol for an emergency session on workers compensation reform. The Senate Majority Caucus sponsored the town hall meeting at the UCD's Alumni & Visitors Center.

Members of the Davis College Republicans stood outside the building in protest, saying Machado voted for budgets that created the current deficit and he shouldn't criticize the governor's proposal for fixing these fiscal problems.

"This is just a campaign stop, this isn't a real town hall meeting," said Mason Harrison, College Republicans capital region vice chairman.

Inside the building, about 170 people -- mostly veterinary students facing steep fee increases -- listened to the panel of leaders. Around the room, posters read: "Rebuilding the Dream."

Some at the meeting estimated that with fee hikes, a vet student's debt load will total $100,000, which could take his or her entire career to pay off.

Machado said fee increases proposed for graduate students shouldn't be the same for every professional school because a veterinarian entering the workforce earns less money than a student coming out of business school, for example.

"Averages don't work and we need to recognize that," Machado said. "One size doesn't necessarily fit all. ... And with undergraduates, it's important to make it affordable. To deny access is to deny our future."

Machado said the state must not allow its educational system to erode with the expectation that it will be easily put back together later.

"We can't come back and try to rebuild and return to where we are," Machado said.

It's important, he said, to continue building on the strength of California's higher education. Machado envisions that investment could lead to many more jobs in the region through development of a biotechnology corridor from UCD to the Bay Area.

UCD Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef said "it's a very practical matter to invest money in universities." A recent study that shows for every $1 given to UCD, the university returns $5 to the economy.

Timothy Mondavi, vice chairman of Robert Mondavi wine company, said California's wine industry is one of the best in the nation because of its partnership with the University of California system. He noted, for example, the university's help in protecting vineyards against an infamous pest, the glassy-winged sharpshooter.

"To me, wine adds to the quality of life, the university adds to the quality of wine and it adds to the pocketbook of the state," Mondavi said.

According to a fact sheet provided at the meeting, allocated and unallocated base budget cuts are proposed to total $360 million for the UC system, $299 million for the California State University system and $236 million for community colleges.

Alexander Gonzalez, president of Cal State Sacramento, said he anticipates laying off faculty, reducing course offerings and "for the first time, denying admission to students who are otherwise admissible."

Gonzalez was referring to a budget plan to reduce student enrollment by 10 percent at the UC and CSU campuses, redirecting those approximately 7,000 students to community colleges and encouraging them to transfer later.

Gonzalez said this goes against the state's 1960 master plan, which guarantees every eligible student an opportunity to attend college.

"That promise is going to be broken," Gonzalez said.

Vanderhoef said he anticipates a large percentage of these students who are turned away will not go to community college, but will instead enroll at private or out-of-state universities.

"They're the top eighth (of graduating high school seniors). They have other options," Vanderhoef said.

In addition to enrollment reductions, fee increases have repercussions, too, college leaders said.

Francisco Rodriguez, president of Cosumnes River College in Sacramento and former president of Woodland Community College, said when fees were raised from $11 to $18 per unit and course offerings were reduced at community colleges last year, 90,000 students dropped out. Another 90,000 students that the community college system had expected to gain that year did not enroll.

Fee hikes and budget cuts are also having negative effects at UC campuses. Kalen Gallagher, president of the Associated Students of UCD, said he knows students who came to the university with dreams of earning a degree in four years who have been forced to drop out due to fee hikes.

Others, he said, have had to take on a second or third job to pay the increased tuition and that takes a toll on their studies and overall college experience.

Paloma Perez, ASUCD vice president, said proposed budget cuts would "completely zero out outreach." These programs reach out to middle and high school students to let them know college is a possibility, make sure they take the right courses to get into college and guide them through the application process.

Perez said she is a "product of outreach" and might not be at UCD if it weren't for these programs. If the budget cuts are approved, she said, they will have detrimental effects.

"It's not good for the students, it's not good for prospective students and it's not good for the state of California," Perez said.

Vanderhoef said the universities don't want to shirk their share of budget cuts, but want to play a bigger role in determining how and where those cuts are made.