The California State University system will enroll 20,000 fewer students next year in an effort to cope with expected state budget cuts, it was announced Tuesday.

The 23-campus system plans to cut enrollment by 5 percent next academic year to absorb a more than 7 percent cut to its budget proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The university has to cut enrollment because it would not have funds for enough teachers and other resources to handle its previous enrollment target, CSU Chancellor Dr. Charles B. Reed said at Tuesday's meeting of the Board of Trustees.

"The only way to maintain quality ... would be to implement a 5 percent enrollment reduction,' he said.

The enrollment change would reduce the total enrollment systemwide from 455,000 this year to 435,000 next year. Cal State Long Beach officials say they expect to enroll 2,000 fewer students.

Schwarzenegger's proposed state budget calls for $311 million in cuts to CSU. About $100 million of that would be recouped by raising student fees by 10 percent for undergraduates, 20 percent for out-of-state students, and by 40 percent for graduate students.

The Board did not discuss any of those proposed increases on Tuesday. It will vote in March on a final plan regarding fees, enrollment reductions and other issues related to budget cuts.

The governor has proposed specific cuts to the CSU, such as the elimination of state funding for outreach programs that recruit and retain students. CSU officials want to keep these programs and instead absorb the $191.5 million in budget cuts solely by reducing enrollment.

"We want to decide what's best at the campuses rather than being told,' said Robyn Mack, associate vice president at Cal State Long Beach.

Schwarzenegger proposes to have CSU and University of California systems redirect about 1 percent of qualified freshman applicants to community colleges, where they will have their fees waved.

CSU officials want to redirect an additional 1 percent of applicants who have not yet completed either all of their lower division college work or their college English and math requirements. Those students could meet those requirements more cheaply at community colleges and then reapply to CSU.

Community colleges would get more than $200 million in new funding under the governor's plan, but some officials question if that will be enough.

"That's what a lot of people in California are worried about,' said Dale Ruhe, Long Beach City College spokesman. "That the community colleges (that are) supposed to get these extra students may not get the extra money to educate these people.'

CSU officials say they agree with another of the governor's proposals to end state subsidies to students taking more than 110 percent of total units they need to graduate.

But the CSU system thinks that students should be allowed to take more courses than the governor has proposed before they begin paying out-of-state fees, said Patrick Lenz, assistant vice chancellor of budget development.

"There needs to be a very clear policy developed and appropriate notification to students about what this (proposal) would entail,' he said.

The board is expected today to endorse Schwarzenegger's two March ballot measures that would float a $15 billion deficit financing bond and create a balanced budget act.