Virginia's three top public universities are seeking to cut some of their ties to state government in what they describe as a bid to gain more control over their destinies after years of dwindling state funding.

Under the plan that the University of Virginia, the College of William and Mary and Virginia Tech are pitching to lawmakers, the institutions would agree to take a limited share of state money in exchange for being freed from some personnel, purchasing and construction regulations, which university officials say would reduce expenses substantially.

Perhaps more important, the universities would also gain the freedom to increase tuition rates as their governing boards see fit.

A handful of small public campuses across the country have made such moves, but it would be the first time that a state's premier institutions had declared their quasi-independence. University officials say that their proposed status as "commonwealth chartered" institutions would not equate to becoming private and that their boards -- which would still be appointed by the governor -- would remain inclined to keep tuition increases modest.

"This is seizing the opportunity to build on the strengths of a few institutions for the strength of the entire state," said Leonard W. Sandridge Jr., executive vice president and chief operating officer of the University of Virginia.

But the issue raises larger questions of what a public university's responsibility to the state is when it receives such a small share of its funding from government. Since 1985, the portion of U-Va.'s budget that comes from tax revenue has shrunk from 27.9 percent to 8.1 percent, one of the lowest rates in the nation.

The plan could also alter the battle lines in the struggle over Gov. Mark R. Warner's proposed tax increases. Warner (D) has looked to the education community as an unofficial ally in the campaign for new streams of revenue. In seeking greater autonomy, the three universities seem poised to abandon their longtime effort to gain more funds.

In recent speeches, House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) has touted the potential benefit of freeing the state's campuses from many regulations.

The universities have not found a sponsor for their proposal in the Virginia General Assembly. Warner's spokeswoman, Ellen Qualls, gave the idea a lukewarm response. She noted that the governor is calling for a $144 million increase in college funding in the next two-year budget.

"The governor's first priority is to begin to address the underfunding of higher education from the state level," she said. "His budget and tax plan does that."

But university officials are scarred by a pattern of up-and-down funding the past decade. William T. Walker Jr., an associate vice president at William and Mary, presented figures to argue that the campus is underfunded by more than $21 million a year, measured against the state's guidelines for academic program size, faculty salaries and student aid.

Details of the universities' proposal are hazy. Sandridge said it would require changing the state's funding formula so that the three institutions would forfeit some share of anticipated funding increases.

Other public campuses would be allowed to apply for "commonwealth chartered" status, he said. But the idea was crafted by those three institutions which, because of their strong alumni donor pools and large endowments, have the financial leeway to pursue it.

Sandridge said freeing the institutions from regulations would save money by "cutting down on bureaucracy and duplication." For example, U-Va. would be able to create its own, less cumbersome personnel records system rather than relying on the statewide system. A similar move in 1996 that made the university's medical center independent from the rest of the university generated substantial savings, he said.

By accepting less state money, the institutions would "clearly rely more on tuition," he said. University officials note that after a series of tuition freezes and rollbacks in the 1990s, tuition in Virginia is lower than in many other states. Sandridge said he remains confident that the institutions will not raise tuition unreasonably.

"The ultimate check and balance is that we have to keep our prices in line with our peers or it will affect our enrollments," he said.

Travis Reindl, a policy analyst for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, said he predicts that more top public universities will seek greater autonomy from state governments.

"The numbers just dictate it," he said. "If you're a university like U-Va., and the state has become such a minority stakeholder, you can legitimately ask how much authority should they exercise over my business if they're only kicking in 10 percent of the funding."

The logic for such institutions, he said, is "we'd rather have less money we can count on than more money we can't count on."

Yet he predicted that the attempt will run up against such questions as whether freedom from state control would allow the institutions to grant more spots to higher-paying students from outside Virginia and whether the universities would still devote research time to topics that benefit the state.

Sandridge said he does not expect such changes. "This is not a proposal that says the state will not have any investment" in the universities, he said. "There are lots of continuing relationships with the commonwealth that would not change."