About 400 students came to a town hall meeting held on campus yesterday to engage administrators, including Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, on plans to overcome financial woes that have led to drastic budget cuts.

Administrators presented several strategies for addressing cuts to the campus this year that totaled $150 million, including plans for seeking an increase in federal funding as well as admitting more out-of state-students.

"It is foolish to rely on (state funds) given the history of the state disinvestment of the educational system," Birgeneau said of plans to attract more private and federal funding.

Birgeneau said that a planned increase in out-of-state enrollment would generate $60 million per year, offsetting a decrease in state funding per student which led to the equivalent of 2,500 students being completely unfunded by the state this year.

Many of the questions from students focused on a proposed 32 percent student fee increase that will be voted on by the UC Board of Regents at their upcoming meeting on Nov. 17 to 19.

However, Birgeneau said that given the current financial environment there is little alternative but to raise fees.

"Without student fee increases, the quality of education would deteriorate," he said.

The panel-which also included Executive Vice Provost George Breslauer, Dean of Students Jonathan Poullard and Erin Gore, associate vice chancellor of budget-directed students to lobby state legislators to restore funding by measures such as a collective march on the state capitol.

"Nothing short of that is going to help," Breslauer said. "We all have to be shooting outward."

Breslauer added that the university would be sending students the e-mail addresses of state legislators so students could lobby them directly.

Birgeneau responded to several students who asked about measures to overcome budget cuts by urging a more proactive response from students.

"I would have liked to hear more from students about what are they going to do," Birgeneau said.

Although the chancellor said he supported more outward statewide action, he declined to endorse a systemwide strike scheduled to coincide with the upcoming regents' meeting.

Though the ASUC hosted the forum in an effort to bring transparency to the administration's handling of the cuts, student reactions were mixed.

Sophomore Farrah Moos said she appreciated the effort from administrators to directly address students, even though some of her questions went unanswered.

"(The forum) could have been more constructive and featured more about what we can work towards together," she said. "We need to do everything they said but a lot more too. We can't depend on them alone."

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