San Francisco State University is considering eliminating its School of Engineering to help close a $14 million budget gap, a dramatic shift in strategy to deal with ever-diminishing funds.

San Francisco State spokeswoman Christina Holmes said campus President Robert Corrigan does not want to make across-the-board cuts as he has in the past few years because that erodes the quality of the entire university. Instead, he wants to make targeted cuts, she said.

"Right now every college is under review," Holmes said. She emphasized that eliminating the engineering school "is just a proposal," and nothing has been decided.

Other programs at San Francisco State also may face elimination, Holmes said, but the School of Engineering was the first department warned by administrators that it could be closed as it was in the middle of hiring four tenure-track faculty members.

The move would leave few options for low-income students in and around San Francisco who plan to major in engineering.

While colleges and universities routinely drop degree programs that are outdated or have low enrollment, it is unusual to consider ending a successful program with 700 students. California State University spokeswoman Colleen Bentley-Adler said she did not know of any other state college campus that is considering a similar approach to budget cuts.

The 45-year-old program has grown by nearly 50 percent since fall 2001 and traditionally serves low-income and minority students, many of whom are the first in their families to go to college.

"This gets them out of poverty and into productive, high-paying jobs. It would be a great loss to the city and to the whole Bay Area," said Ahmad Ganji, a mechanical engineering professor at San Francisco State. "We have so many people who will be deprived from getting an engineering degree if it is closed. "

If the program is eliminated, it would be phased out over three years. But that might not be enough time for last year's new students or even this year's crop of freshmen to finish because many students have to take a part- time class load while they work to put themselves through school, said ShyShenq Liou, director of the School of Engineering.

The more than 600 students who have already been admitted to the engineering school for next year will probably not be allowed to enroll in the major if the program is closed, and many of the 17 faculty members would be laid off, Liou said.

That was devastating news for Wendy Zambrano-Mah, 32, a former Safeway grocery checker who returned to school to get her degree to be a role model for her three daughters and make a better life for her family. She attends Cañada College in Redwood City and has been accepted for the fall semester at San Francisco State. Driving to San Jose State -- the only other public university in the Bay Area with the same engineering programs -- would be impossible with her family obligations, she said; her children go to school three blocks from S.F. State.

Her husband also is a Safeway checker and hopes to attend college after she graduates.

"I don't know what I'm going to do now," said Zambrano-Mah, who is the first in her family to go to college. "There is not really another major at S. F. State that interests me, and I've done so much already to prepare for civil engineering."

She was one of hundreds of students and alumni who have written to Corrigan to express their dismay at the possibility of the program closing. They will meet at 7 p.m. today in room 256 of the science building.

Holmes said that the campus is developing a comprehensive budget- reduction plan that will be released by the end of the month. Even then, any program cuts will have to go through an extensive review by the faculty academic senate.

She said the College of Business, which also faces possible cuts, is looking at options for raising more money to sustain itself, possibly by increasing fees in the MBA program, Holmes said.

But she said Corrigan has been looking closely at the engineering program recently because it is more narrowly focused than programs at other universities. The program emphasizes professional training and has four undergraduate majors -- electrical, mechanical, civil and computer engineering -- and a master's of science in engineering. Cutting the school would save the campus $2.5 million a year.

"We are going through unprecedented times," she said. "In the CSU (California State University), we are looking at limiting enrollment by 20,000 students who otherwise could have come. It is very painful. We are not used to cutting programs. We are used to adding programs."

But students and faculty say that the human toll is too great. Most of the engineering school's students cannot afford UC Berkeley or Stanford, even if they could get in. And San Jose State is too far away for students who also hold down jobs and juggle family responsibilities.

Adrianne Borgia, a transportation engineer who graduated in 1973, said the program changed her life, and she is distressed that other students may not get the same opportunity. She is also worried about how it could impact the industry.

"We do need more engineers. It is a pretty graying profession," she said. "We do not have enough new people being trained and that will affect the economy. I think he (President Corrigan) needs a wake-up call. This is not the department to cut."