Students from the University of West Georgia showed up in force along Maple Street in Carrollton on Thursday to protest proposed “worst-case scenario” cuts to the University System of Georgia.

In an effort to account for a budget shortfall of $1 billion, the state’s nearly three dozen universities and colleges were told several weeks ago by a joint budget committee to anticipate upwards of $300 million in cuts, coming on top of $265 million in cuts to the system as laid out in Gov. Sonny Perdue’s original budget recommendation. The University of West Georgia’s share of the cuts would be $8.1 million. While the University System accounts for roughly 12 percent of the state budget, its share of the cuts under these proposals constitutes one third of the burden.

Statewide, the proposed cuts could lead to thousands of layoffs, enrollment caps, fewer classes, larger class sizes, cuts in majors, academic programs and community outreach. At UWG more than 300 jobs could be lost under the proposal. Research would be cut considerably, and campus services would suffer because of loss of manpower.

Entire majors could be cut, leaving upperclassmen who have spent their academic careers focusing on a specific area scrambling for an alternative.

“A lot of students are really concerned their majors are going to be cut, and what then? For those of us who are so far along in our education, it’s going to either force us out of school because we’re going to have to pay increased tuition, or we’re going to have to look at another college because they’re going to completely cut our majors,” said David Bachman of the UWG College Republicans, who organized the event. “We’re here because we want to put the heat on our state legislators. ... You have a bunch of elected officials in the state capital who are just trying to flex their muscle and use college students to score political points.”

With the state continuing to see unemployment numbers swell and as the state economy continues to slump, it doesn’t make sense for the Legislature to now turn such a blind eye to education, as it alone will do much to determine Georgia’s future fiscal health, said Chris Medford, an senior environmental studies major.

“I feel like it’s a travesty for the future of our education in the state of Georgia. I feel like there is a threat. It may not pass to the full extent of what’s been proposed, but I do feel like it could make a major impact on higher education across the state,” Medford said. “Higher education is very important, especially in the economy we live in right now. It should be something that’s given more funding, not something that’s being cut.”

Others were concerned that the proposed cuts might permanently decrease an already strained teaching corps at UWG and across the state.

“We need better teachers already, and we certainly don’t need to cut them,” said Angela Baldwin, a senior English major. “It would sacrifice the education of people in college but also people in high school and middle school now too.”

Doneen Mills, a senior political science major, said that regardless of whether the actual cuts come in lower than that which was proposed, the effect on UWG itself will be significant.

“This institution is part of the solution, and any cuts that hurt the universities are going to hurt the long-term prospects of the state, and certainly if you’ve got 12 percent of the state budget, you shouldn’t have to endure 30 percent of the cuts. It just doesn’t make sense mathematically,” Mills said. “We’ve already cut back. They’ve cut services so the effect is minimal on the students but we have professors that have already been furloughed, and at the point we’re at now, any further cuts are going to impact the quality of education to this school.”