Crowded classes taught by part-time faculty could be awaiting college students at many of the state's public institutions if proposed budget cuts go forward.

Some students might have to spend more time in college to complete degrees, one university president predicts.

The state's 35 public colleges and universities have submitted fiscal 2009 budget plans that slash 5 percent — $115 million — from the university system's $2.3 billion annual budget. The four public research institutions account for $53 million of the total.

Georgia State University President Carl Patton said the budget cutbacks will have serious impact.

"This is real money, it's going to hurt," he said. GSU would have to cut $12.1 million for 2009.

With a campus growing by 1,000 students a year, any amount is hard to take, Patton said.

"We will have to meet student demand by teaching larger classes but our classrooms are fixed in size," he said.

Ultimately, cuts could mean it would take students longer to complete degrees, he said. Packing more students into fewer classes means fewer time-slot choices for students juggling schedules to get all their required credits in eight semesters.

Gov. Sonny Perdue has requested that state agencies develop plans to cut spending 3.5 percent this fiscal year because tax collections have lagged in the stalled economy. Basic kindergarten-12 school funding and public health programs were excluded, but universities were not.

Perdue's budget office will collect those plans by the end of August and he will likely recommend spending cuts to the General Assembly if the economy doesn't improve.

When the state Board of Regents votes on a systemwide budget in August, members will vote for a 3.5 percent cut for 2009, as the governor requested, said university system spokesman John Millsaps.

But the regents asked universities and colleges to submit budgets that cut 5 percent for fiscal 2009 and 2010, Millsaps said. The additional 1.5 percent allows university system staff more options in tailoring reductions system wide if that's required later, he said.

The regents could rearrange cuts by line item, approving more cuts from one institution and fewer from another, thus spreading them unevenly among schools.

The cuts will be made in state appropriated funding, which represents about 75 percent of most schools budgets, Millsaps said. Revenue from tuition and student fees isn't directly affected.

The 35 reports from individual institutions, obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Wednesday under the state Open Records Law, show proposed cuts are broad and deep.

Many institutions have said they would delay hiring key positions and eliminate others.

At Georgia Gwinnett College, officials would slash $750,000 for library books that had been allocated by the state to build up its collection.

Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College would eliminate men's and women's basketball, saving a little over $300,000 for the Tifton school.

The University of Georgia proposed cuts totaling $20 million. UGA would make some of its biggest cuts by decreasing operating expenses, delaying an IT upgrade, for example, and in by eliminating vacant positions. Another major cut would save $2 million by eliminating 44 positions in support personnel, such as student affairs counselors.

If UGA is required to cut 5 percent, about 205 staff positions would be affected, according to the report.

Georgia Tech's budget plan calls for, among other things, an $8 million reduction across all departments, at the discretion of the deans and department heads. Tech's cuts would total $13.2 million for 2009.

UGA, GSU and Georgia Tech, the three largest institutions, and the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta are the state's research universities. MCG would to cut $8.6 million for 2009.

Many colleges used the budget plan submissions to plead to avoid cuts. In a "general statement about efficiencies at University of West Georgia," school officials argued that as a growing college designed to offer higher education to marginal students, West Georgia can't cut its number of admissions and achieve its mission.

"Surely, it would not be appropriate for University of West Georgia to withstand any more than the minimum cut possible," school officials wrote.

Staff writer James Salzer contributed to this article.