If Gov. Jim Doyle’s budget goes through the state Legislature, there could be 1,000 fewer course sections per semester statewide in the UW System.

That was one of the points System President Katharine Lyall discussed during a teleconference with newspapers from UW schools Monday. Lyall answered questions about how students and campuses would be affected by the budget cuts.

Lyall said Doyle’s plan calls for cutting 650 positions System-wide. She calculated that if about half of those positions are faculty positions and half are administrative, and with 325 faculty members teaching three sections a semester, the System would lose about 1,000 class sections every semester.

Associate Vice Chancellor Steve Tallant said Eau Claire is trying to ensure that only sections are cut, not whole courses. He said the administration has been planning classes and sections based on Doyle’s proposed budget.

“We are working real hard at keeping academic instruction intact,” he said. “I think we’re sitting pretty good.”

Tallant also said while some sections may be dropped this summer because of low enrollment, the number of sections dropped shouldn’t be different than it normally is.

As far as the number of faculty positions that will be cut, Vice Chancellor Andy Soll said Doyle’s plan didn’t make a distinction about whether the 650 positions would be administrative or faculty.

Soll said Eau Claire’s portion of the cuts would be a loss of 32 positions. The plan being developed, he said, states that all positions that are either already vacant, or will be vacated due to retirement or the end of a contract, will not be filled.

“What we’re planning now is that nobody would lose a job in the middle of a contract,” he said.

Lyall said the System would look to cut administrative positions first, then look at other options after that, such as cutting specific programs and faculty.

If it’s determined that cutting faculty and sections, or raising tuition, doesn’t help balance the budget, the System would consider lowering enrollment as a final option.

“The issue is whether the state wants us to continue to serve 160,000 students (System-wide),” Lyall said. She said she hasn’t heard anybody in the Legislature mention downsizing the number of students in the System.

Lyall said that all schools have a growing demand for enrollment. Soll said that Eau Claire has admitted 9,429 new students for next fall, which is right at the school’s enrollment target. Last fall, Eau Claire admitted 9,745 students, which was over target.

Along with cutting classes and positions, Doyle’s budget calls for a $250 per semester tuition increase. To counteract that, Doyle proposed a $24 million increase in financial aid.

However, Lyall expressed concern that the money for the increase is coming from an auxiliary fund that is funded by student fees.

Lyall said that if the auxiliary fund is drained, there would be less money for projects, like dorm roof repairs.

“We’d like them to provide financial aid from state money,” she said. “It’s the least they could do.”