At least $12.5 million in overall cuts and tuition hikes of $250 a semester are looming over the UW-Eau Claire campus days after Gov. Jim Doyle’s state budget proposal.

The weeks of rumors predicting serious cuts became reality Tuesday night as the governor included $250 million in cuts to the UW System while presenting his 2003-05 budget to the state Legislature.

The governor offered a balanced budget filled with spending cuts and no tax raises to deal with the state’s $3.2 billion deficit over the next two years. The budget now has to pass through the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Doyle said the decision to call for $250 million in cuts to higher education — which the System says would be its most severe reduction ever — was troubling to him.

“But everyone must share in the sacrifice needed to clean up the budget mess — and the university system can’t be an exception,” Doyle said.

With Eau Claire making up about 5 percent of the System’s budget, at least $12.5 million in cuts is expected, Chancellor Donald Mash said in an interview Wednesday. That total, however, doesn’t include tuition revenue from potential increases.

Tuition supports about one-third of Eau Claire’s budget with the other two-thirds coming from state funding, Mash said. The university made many reductions last year and is handling $2.5 million in cuts this year, he said.

“We’re pretty lean as it is,” Mash said.

The chancellor e-mailed the entire campus early Wednesday saying that university officials will work for a lesser cut, but also warning to “plan for the worst.

If there’s a small tuition increase coupled with large cuts to the university, Mash said the university would have fewer courses and sections available, numerous unfilled campus jobs, and possibly an even smaller freshmen enrollment.

A number of key positions would have to be left unfilled, Mash said. There is also a chance that some faculty and staff, specifically those on yearly contracts, could be laid off due to the size of cuts being proposed, he said.

The in-state undergraduate tuition limits in Doyle’s budget proposal would increase Eau Claire’s base tuition by 16.7 percent, Vice Chancellor Andy Soll said.

Doyle said Tuesday he hoped the System’s Board of Regents would not raise tuition to his proposed limits, “but under no circumstances may they go higher.”

During last year’s gubernatorial campaign, Doyle said he thought a 10-percent tuition cap was too high.

Wisconsin still has the second-lowest tuition of all the Big Ten schools, Doyle said, except for Iowa, which has increased tuition by 19 percent.

The plan’s potential $150 million in tuition revenue, though, would not all be available to offset the overall reduction, Soll said.

Countering the tuition hikes, Doyle also called for a 56 percent rise in financial aid for students, calling it the biggest increase in state history.

Students need to put things in perspective, Soll said, and think of what level of tuition increase makes sense. Revenue from tuition hikes could keep quality class sizes and course availability in the midst of a severe funding cut, he said.

State Sen. Ron Brown (R-Eau Claire) said Doyle’s $250-per-semester limit on tuition increases is good for universities. It allows them to continue to provide quality education, he said, as well as lessen the affect on their staff and faculty.

Brown said he hopes students look at the situation properly and understand that stabilizing the state’s current financial situation could mean better job opportunities in a few years.

No one group should have to share the burden of the budget crisis, he said.

“Everybody, across the board, has to share in the pain to get us back on solid, financial ground,” Brown said.

State Rep. Larry Balow (D-Eau Claire), a member of the Assembly’s Colleges and Universities Committee, plans to look into possible ways to restore money to the System without raising taxes, said Bill Keeton, the legislator’s chief of staff.

“This is new, unchartered territory,” Keeton said. “We’ll just have to see indeed where the Republicans’ priorities do lie.”