POMONA - Cal Poly Pomona faces at least $11 million in budget cuts, but university officials are working to keep the reductions from affecting students and to avoid layoffs, President Michael Ortiz said Tuesday.

Nobody knows exactly how hard the campus will be hit by the cuts, largely because the state budget future hinges on propositions on the ballot next Tuesday.

"We feel a little schizophrenic because we don't know what the budget will look like," Ortiz told about 200 faculty, staff and students Tuesday.

University officials said the governor's proposed budget is the best-case scenario for the California State University system and Cal Poly Pomona, even though that budget seeks to slash CSU funding statewide by $240 million, with $11 million coming from Cal Poly Pomona.

Like other CSU campuses, Cal Poly Pomona will reduce its new freshman enrollment by 5 percent this fall and may be forced to increase tuition by $205 to $2,251.

Oritz, who inherited the financial mess when he took over as president this year, used the Tuesday budget summit meeting to rally his troops for the next four months of critical budget planning.

Ortiz plans to meet informally twice a week with faculty, staff and students to discuss funding of individual departments and groups.

Although the state budget is still fluid, Cal Poly Pomona officials are planning to cut 10 percent of their budget for next year across the board. "I think every part of the campus is being affected," Ortiz said.

He said Tuesday he plans to eliminate 11 of the 127 top managerial positions on campus as a cost-saving measure.

Ortiz, who has served in Cal Poly's top post for six months, also canceled his costly inaugural ceremony this spring. The money saved from the ceremony was spent on faculty training.

Representatives from the CSU are not asking the legislature to lessen the $240-million in fiscal year 04-05 reductions, but they are asking for control over where the cuts will be made, said Patricia Farris, Cal Poly's chief financial officer.

Over the last two years and this current fiscal year, the university has had $20.5 million in reductions from the state, Farris said. Control over the next $11 million in cuts is critical to the university, she said.

"We can't take anymore cuts," Farris said.

Anthony Moriel, 22, of Pomona spoke of his fear of higher tuition at the meeting. In July, tuition rose from $1,572 to $2,046, and now it may be raised again.

"I think that that is incredibly insane. Fees have almost doubled in a year,"the student said. "We already have to work to pay the bills that we have."

Moriel knows students who work 30 hours or more a week to pay for their college education. He fears the new tuition hike will make college unattainable for poor students.

Ortiz said he has lobbied local legislators about the rising fees, but encouraged students to lobby the state government in mass to influence some change.

"The cuts that we are facing are cuts imposed on us," he said.