ARCATA -- Humboldt State University will lose nearly $5.7 million -- more than had been anticipated -- and be forced to cut rather than increase enrollment under the proposed state budget.

The California State University budget will be cut by 8.3 percent under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed 2004-2005 budget. Earlier this month, university officials had believed they would lose 7.2 percent of their budgets once student fee increases were factored in.

With CSU as a whole losing $220.4 million dollars, 16,747 students who want to attend a CSU campus will be shut out this fall.

The projected 5 percent enrollment cut means HSU will be able to enroll only 6,917 to 7,077 students next year. Currently, the equivalent of 7,450 full-time students are enrolled, a figure that the university had hoped to increase next year.

Undergraduate students would pay 10 percent more in fees next year under the proposal, and graduate students would pay 40 percent more. Non-resident fees would jump 20 percent.

Associated Students President Gretchen Kinney Newsom said that last year's fee increases -- 10 percent followed by an additional 30 percent -- have already created financial hardship for students which additional increases would only make worse. She added that the higher student-to-faculty ratio has meant more crowded classes -- one of her classes which is meant to be a seminar has more than 40 students enrolled, making it hard to have meaningful class discussion, she said.

Kinney Newsom added that some seniors will have to delay graduation because the classes they need aren't offered. A group of HSU students plans to lobby in Sacramento next month.

CSU administrators also plan to lobby, asking the governor to at least allow them more flexibility in deciding what to cut, states an HSU press release. The governor's proposed budget spells out where many of the cuts should be made.

"He targeted the Equal Opportunity Program, which provides support and mentoring to disadvantaged students. This is unacceptable," HSU President Rollin Richmond said. "These are important programs for our students. We will implore the governor at least to allow us to decide where reductions should be made."

HSU's share of the governor's cuts will likely mean a continuing loss of faculty and additional layoffs of "our outstanding part-time lecturers," Richmond added. It will also mean another reduction in course sections, which could make it harder for students to graduate on time, he said.

CSU's analysis of the governor's proposal is equally grim. Instead of the net 7.2 percent reduction CSU originally anticipated, the cut has swollen to 8.3 percent. The 23 CSU campuses have already been cut by 11 percent in the last two years.

Richmond called the additional cuts "devastating" and said the CSU is vital to training the state's work force.

"We'll be seeing long-term ramifications throughout the state's economy triggered by today's decisions to further undermine the state's universities," he said.

He added that -- since each HSU student is estimated to bring in $35,600 annually to the local economy -- enrollment reductions will affect more than just the university.

"I just wish our representatives would understand that one of the reasons the California economy was so strong for such a long time was that we had highly educated citizens," Kinney Newsom said.

Cuts to education will mean fewer opportunities for high-paying jobs for those citizens, she said.

"It's going to have long-term, detrimental effects," she said.

Increasing fees by 10 percent each year doesn't bring in enough money for the university system to recover what will be more than $750 million lost to the CSU system in three years, Richmond said.

"If the Legislature would commit to helping us recoup what we've lost, that would be fine, but I'm worried that that won't happen," he said. "We must have the flexibility to develop a fee increase schedule that will maintain quality on our campus. If the businesses and people of California wish to have an educated work force and opportunities for happy and fulfilling lives, then they must make their wishes known to our political leaders. California is well on its way to becoming a second-class place to live and raise a family."