The budget proposal the governor released on Friday would introduce sweeping new changes to the way California's universities do business, and students and their families would bear the brunt of it.

Fees would go up, financial aid would go down and the state's four-year universities would accept fewer students. University students who take more classes than they need to graduate would have to pay an additional fee, and all state funding for outreach programs that help disadvantaged students get into college would be completely wiped out.

"This is going to impact student access," said Charles Reed, chancellor of the 23-campus California State University system, which would take a $240 million cut that would target academic and outreach programs, lead to increased class sizes, and cut some20,000 students out of the university system in the fall.

In introducing the proposals, however, Schwarzenegger's financial staff said fiscal constraints have necessitated tough choices, and they've worked out a plan to ensure a space in college to every qualified student.

One of the governor's more controversial proposals would cut the number of new freshmen who can enroll in CSU or University of California campuses next fall by 10 percent. Instead, those students -- about 3,800 from CSU and 3,200 from UC -- would be shuffled into community colleges, where they would have their fees waived. The governor provided few details on how such a plan would be implemented, and university officials said they don't know yet how it would work.

"I don't know how we pick and choose and say you can't go to (CSU) Chico, you need to go to Sierra" community college, Reed said.

Other highlights of the governor's proposal:

Undergraduate fees at CSU and UC campuses would rise 10 percent -- the third increase in three years. Base CSU fees would climb to $2,251 per year, up from $2,046. UC fees would go from $4,984 to $5,482.

Graduate student fees would soar by 40 percent, taking CSU graduate fees to $3,158 from $2,256 and UC graduate fees to $7,307 from $5,219.

Fees for out-of-state students would also increase by 20 percent.

Community college fees would jump 44 percent, on top of a 64 percent increase implemented this year. Fees would go from $18 per unit to $26, which means a full-time student taking a traditional course load of 15 units a semester -- about five classes -- would pay $780 per year, up from $540.

Community college students who already have bachelor's degrees would pay $50 per unit.

Future UC and CSU tuition hikes would be linked to per-capita income. Increases would be capped at no more than 10 percent a year.

CSU and UC students who take more courses than they need to graduate would pay an additional fee for the extra units, although the amount of the higher fee is unknown. At UC, the fee would kick in after students complete 198 units -- 180 units are required for graduation. At CSU, the fee would kick in after completion of 132 units. The system requires 120 units for graduation.

Financial aid programs would be scaled back, including the Cal Grant program, which provides free money to qualified students.

CSU and UC have historically placed one-third of the revenue from fee increases into financial aid programs, but the governor's proposal would shave that to 20 percent.

The income level needed for families to qualify for Cal Grants would be reduced by 10 percent, and the maximum Cal Grant award offered to students in private schools would shrink from $9,708 to $5,482 a year.

UC's annual state-funded budget would be cut by $372 million, although the governor would provide an additional $10 million in funding to allow the system's 10th campus in Merced to open as planned in fall 2005. The campus opening was delayed a year by budget cuts implemented this fiscal year.

Joni Finney, a higher education policy expert and vice president of the San Jose-based National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, said Schwarzenegger's proposal is a mixed bag of the promising and the problematic.

Finney said some plans -- such as charging students more when they take too long to graduate, increasing grad school fees to reduce the state subsidy for those students and even shuffling students to community colleges -- are promising higher education reforms. But plans to scale back financial aid would put the whammy on middle-income families who are already struggling with higher fees.

Reducing financial aid "is a huge mistake," Finney said. "I think those things ought to be preserved at all costs, even if it means reducing instructional allocations."

Already, colleges and students are gearing up to fight Schwarzenegger's proposals.

Caitlin Gill, a Humboldt State University student and vice chair of the California State Students Association, said Schwarzenegger's plan to raise fees and cut financial aid "has established a new tax on disadvantaged and middle-class students, not only breaking a campaign promise, but jeopardizing the state's best investment, higher education."