Students, local business interests and area university chancellors were in attendance discussing Gov. Jim Doyle’s proposed $250 million budget cuts with UW System President Katharine Lyall and the System’s Board of Regents Tuesday in the Tamarack Room of Davies Center.

The two-hour “listening session” — the first of five sessions statewide — focused on how the cuts could affect System schools.

The proposed budget would allow System schools to offset up to $150 million of the cuts with tuition increases, but that still leaves $100 million for the System to absorb, Lyall said.

“We are certainly doing our fair share and more,” Lyall said. She added while the System makes up about 9 percent of the state budget, Doyle’s plan would force it to absorb about 38 percent of state cuts.

One of the ways to compensate for the cut would be to raise tuition.

Student Senate President Sarah Schuh, who sat on the session’s panel of about 30 people, said tuition increases are inevitable but a disproportionate increase would unfairly burden students.

Other speakers included UW-Eau Claire Chancellor Donald Mash, as well as chancellors from UW-River Falls and UW-Stout.

Eau Claire Area School District Deputy Superintendent Gregg Butler also voiced concern as a panel member.

Although Doyle’s proposed budget doesn’t cut state funding for K-12 education, the district could nonetheless be adversely affected, Butler said.

ECASD relies on the university’s teacher preparation program to attract good quality teachers to the district, Butler said. If the proposed cuts affect the quantity or, more important, the quality of students in the program, the district will suffer, he said.

“Today we saw how higher education has a positive impact on a lot of different areas,” Schuh said. “We reinforced how important the System is in the local community, not just at the university.”