BERKELEY -- Four hundred empty chairs stood silent sentinel over a rally Tuesday at University of California, Berkeley to illustrate the impact proposed state budget cuts will have on student access to public colleges.

Each of the chairs represented a student who will be kept out of Berkeley next year by budget cuts. Rally organizers called the event a "non-graduation ceremony."

UC Berkeley Assistant Vice Chancellor for Admissions and Enrollment Richard Black, who spoke at the rally, said the budget cuts are hitting college campuses at an inopportune time, because a bubble of students graduating from high schools is knocking at the doors of public universities. Black said it's distressing that Berkeley and other colleges won't receive enough state funding to serve all eligible students.

"It's disappointing those students are now denied that opportunity, and we're denied the contribution they could provide," Black said.

The Berkeley rally was one of several throughout the state to protest cuts proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

About 100 students attended a similar rally at Chabot College in Hayward, where organizers encouraged students to attend a statewide march and protest Monday in Sacramento.

"We wanted to empower the students to rise up," said Prerna Lal, legislative director for Chabot's student government and a rally organizer. "We told them if they don't speak up, they'll get cuts."

The governor's budget proposal includes more than $600 million in cuts to UC and California State University's state-funded budgets. Some of those cuts would be offset by proposed increases in student tuition -- the third such increase in three years.

Students and administrators are also concerned about one of Schwarzenegger's proposals that would divert freshmen from UC and CSU campuses next year into community colleges. UC officials announced some 3,200 students who are otherwise qualified to attend UC campuses will be sent to community colleges in the fall, and CSU officials plan to divert an additional 4,200.

Those students will be an additional burden on the state's already-overflowing community college system, and officials are worried they may displace other,more traditional community college students who tend to come from lower-income backgrounds and have less knowledge about higher education.

California's community colleges have estimated that 175,000 students were kept out of the system this year because of a combination of budget cuts and student fee increases. To illustrate the loss, community college students throughout the state painted 40 life-size sculptures representing students who are missing from college campuses. Some of those sculptures were also displayed Tuesday at the Berkeley rally.

Darryl Moore, a trustee at Oakland's Peralta Community College District, said the district lost 3,000 students this year.

He's concerned what the double whammy of more cuts and additional enrollment from UC and CSU-qualified students will mean for his district and said he will attend the statewide march next week.