University administrators said Monday that a lower-than-expected tuition increase will propel larger departmental budget cuts in the next fiscal year ÷ cuts that may be as high as 9 percent.

ãThis has been a difficult time, folks, and itâs going to get worse,ä University of Arizona President Peter Likins told faculty at a senate meeting Monday.

Under the 12 percent ÷ or $300 ÷ tuition increase Likins had asked for, he projected that departments would have to cut about 5 percent.

But with the 4 percent ÷ or $100 ÷ tuition hike that the Arizona Board of Regents approved, departments will be asked to prepare for increased to 9 percent, Provost George Davis said at the faculty senate meeting.

In addition, possibly 200 adjunct professors will not have their contracts renewed, Likins said.

ãAs the process begins, massive non-renewable notices will be sent out,ä Likins said. ãThere will be a noise that you havenât heard in more than 10 years from students who canât get into the classes they need.ä

Davis said plans are in the works to make ãstrategic savesä so that the burden on colleges and departments is not so intense. Those saves will be similar to steps taken last semester, when large funds were pulled from university operations before asking deans to make cuts.

ãAs those numbers rise, we are passing the word through the organization,ä Likins said.

One save will come from UA North, which is currently under construction. Davis said the building will not be used for its original intent ÷ a satellite campus offering classes through the UA.

ãTo move in that direction right now does not seem right,ä he said. ãPotentially the space will be leased to Pima Community College.ä

Likins said the merger or elimination of colleges and departments could happen, although the process will be different from the way the Arizona International College was cut last semester.

Likins stressed his disappointed with the regentsâ tuition decision, adding that they did not move an inch toward the financial aid and scholarship reform he had proposed.

Jory Hancock, chair of the faculty senate, said although the regents did not grant officials the tuition increase they had hoped, he said the vote next year could shift in the universityâs favor.

Last month, student lobbyists led by then Associated Students of the University of Arizona President Ray Quintero and Arizona Studentsâ Association director Jenny Rimsza pushed for a ãzero percentä tuition increase.

Newly appointed ASUA President Doug Hartz said that traditional student lobbyist tuition stance is ãup for debate.ä

ãI donât know if it was the best decision for the coming year,ä he said. ãWeâre going to be faced with serious problems next year including class availability.ä

Hartz said, however, that if students had not taken a strong stance against a tuition increase, it could have made them look vulnerable to the state and allow lawmakers to continue to look to students when in a shortfall.

Likins described the ongoing budget negotiations as a situation in which the university is ãgetting bounced from wall to wall.ä

ãWe have more friends in the Legislature than weâve had for years,ä he said. ãThereâs just no money.ä