Registration for fall semester is frustrating students and faculty at Fresno State as the university offers 300 fewer class sections.

That reduction, forced by budget cuts, means some students will have to wait longer to graduate. Faculty will be teaching larger sections and classes, and some part-time faculty will be laid off.

John Welty, president of California State University, Fresno, warned April 22 that the campus should expect fewer class sections in the fall. The university also is cutting enrollment by the equivalent of 900 full-time students.

Students say the reduced enrollment has not helped with course offerings. Registration runs through Friday.

The trouble stems from the state budget deficit and a resulting $11 million reduction in Fresno State's base budget.

Jacqueline Egbuziem, who is pursuing a nursing degree at Fresno State, said eliminated classes directly affect her.

"Some of mine are in jeopardy because they are only offered in certain semesters," Egbuziem said. "And the price keeps going up. This is going to make us want not to come at all."

Provost Jeri Echeverria, vice president of academic affairs, said the prime impact on students is classes not being taught when they want to take them. Another issue for students: cost. Without the courses they need, students may have to stay at Fresno State longer while paying higher fees.

Business major Itai Zaranyika, 25, waited Sunday with a dozen other students in Fresno State's Craig School of Business undergraduate advising office.

"I was supposed to graduate this summer," Zaranyika said. "I have to come back and take a class in the fall."

He said the class will cost him $800.

The cutbacks affect faculty, too.

Instead of offering eight fall sections of information systems management, the business school will offer six at most, said professor Tom Wielicki, director of the Digital Economy Center. Class sizes will increase from 30 to 48 students.

"This is a problem because this is a project-driven class," Wielicki said.

Students submit projects, such as company audits, that faculty must review. "We are going bananas," Wielicki said.

Entrepreneurship professor Tim Stearns holds classes for 55 to 60 students in one section and had planned to offer a second section. Now he will have to teach up to 100 students in one section. "I've got students facing graduation," he said. "I have to scramble. I feel sorry for them. This is not their fault."

Professor Fred Schreiber, chairman of the biology department, went through the last round of major budget cuts at Fresno State early last decade, but he said this time is worse. The department will lay off four lecturers and one semi-retired faculty member. "We have people who have been with us for many years, and we are going to have to let them go," Schreiber said. "One is a full-time lecturer."

Students who need biology classes as a requirement for their major, as well as those who want to take them as an elective, may be unable to get the courses they want at the time they want. Some may not get the courses they want at all, Schreiber said.

Reduced enrollment will not make up for the cuts in faculty, he said. "We are going to have to teach exactly the same number of students with four or five fewer faculty," Schreiber said. "And this is a problem common in several departments in the College of Science and Mathematics."

The economics are altering students' long-term plans. Antonio Hernandez, 31, is a re-entry student who tired of working three to four jobs to get by. He attends Fresno State to earn a bachelor's degree in fine arts. He also hopes for a teaching credential, "but I understand there is no promise I can get in those classes. ... It usually takes a year, but it could take longer now." Hernandez intends to earn a master's degree from UCLA or the University of California at Davis but said he may be unable to complete undergraduate courses required at those campuses as well as "the stuff you need to get out of here."

So if he wins admission to graduate school at either UC campus, he may have to take those requirements there -- and pay more. "I have another year and a half here," he said. "I'm trying to take courses in my major, then come back to the general education requirements."

Biology major Bryn Hayden, 22, is supposed to graduate this year but is having trouble finding classes in reptiles and birds. She and friends visited Oregon State University and Washington State University, checking on graduate schools. Oregon State gave her a list of online courses she may have to take. That would mean more expenses.

Academic counselor Dean Christensen said it is still early to know how profoundly the cut in class offerings will affect students' progress toward degrees. He advises that all students see a counselor, including those in their major subject departments, once every semester. Some departments have their own advisers: "You can't just hope this comes out in the wash."