Bigger classes this fall.

Fewer professors.

Layoffs — the first in 15 years.

Four athletic programs eliminated, including men’s tennis and gymnastics.

These are just some of the cuts the University of Rhode Island will sustain in the coming academic year, after losing $12 million in state money for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

System-wide, the state’s three public colleges are losing a total of $17.8 million in state funding, a deep cut that could mean last-minute tuition and fee hikes, say higher education officials.

The state’s three public colleges braced for the worst when they learned earlier this year that Governor Carcieri’s budget proposal slashed $17.8 million from the schools for the 2008-2009 academic year. URI, Rhode Island College, the Community College of Rhode Island and the Office of Higher Education offered one-time early retirement bonuses to faculty and staff as a way to reduce costs, and agreed to leave dozens of other positions vacant. For example, URI’s longtime dean of students, Fran Cohen, who oversees the university’s alcohol and drug-prevention program and disciplinary system, among other things, is retiring after 37 years, and her position will not be filled. For the first time since the early 1990s — the last time the state was in an economic recession — URI has been forced to lay off about a dozen staff members and a dozen full-time instructors.

On Wednesday, the colleges learned their worst-case scenario was a reality, when the House Finance Committee approved the governor’s higher education cuts in their version of the budget.

“Of course, we have been preparing for this, based on the governor’s budget,” Ivy Locke, vice president for administration and finance at RIC, said yesterday. “We were hoping the legislature could spare higher education as much as possible.”

With the state facing an estimated $425-million deficit, that hope proved futile. Higher Education Commissioner Jack Warner said that given the state’s dire financial situation, the colleges were relieved cuts were not even deeper, although that situation could change in the coming weeks, as lawmakers continue to tweak the fiscal 2009 budget.

With more than $3 million cut last year, the higher education system has lost more than $20 million in state support over the past two years, Warner said. The colleges were also forced to trim about $4 million out of their operational budgets this spring, in a round of last-minute budget cuts.

“We will be challenged, but we will meet our obligations to our students,” Warner said. “We can’t rule out tuition and fee increases and that’s something the Board of Governors will be considering very carefully once the final budget passes.” The board is scheduled to meet June 30.

Last fall, the board approved budget tuition and fee increases of 6 percent at URI, for an in-state total of $8,678; 5.6 percent at RIC, for a total of $5,552; and 5.4 percent at CCRI, for a total of $3,000. The increases do not include room and board, which will cost about $10,000 a year at URI and $8,300 at RIC.

Officials at RIC and CCRI say their cuts — $3.3 million and $1.6 million, respectively — will mostly be made up through attrition and leaving positions vacant. No layoffs are planned. About 50 faculty and staff at RIC and 31 at CCRI have notified officials they plan to retire this year, although that number could rise before the June 21 cutoff date. State employees at the colleges, including Council 94 workers, have until this fall to decide whether they will retire.

At URI, the impact of the cuts is being felt intensely.

About $12 million has been trimmed from the university’s academic division, resulting in larger classes this fall, fewer faculty and more part-time instructors. Provost Donald DeHayes says the university is making adjustments to provide enough sections of popular courses, including chemistry, and will keep class sizes as small as possible. An introductory communications course, for example, will have 24 instead of 22 students. In addition, the freshman class will grow to about 3,200 students this year, with 49 percent coming from Rhode Island. Last year, just 47 percent of the incoming class were in-state students.

“Our most important goal is to maintain the integrity of the curriculum for our students,” DeHayes said. “We must be able to deliver that to them, and we will.”

So far, about 65 faculty and nonunion staff are taking advantage of a $20,000 early retirement bonus and another 85 unionized employees — including clerical workers, supervisors, facilities workers, laborers, carpenters and janitors — are also retiring. Robert A. Weygand, URI’s vice president for administration, says he expects that number to rise as high as 170 employees by this fall. A typical year yields about 60 to 70 retirees, he said.

In addition, about a dozen staff members will be laid off, including the coordinators of the Fine Arts Center Galleries and the Great Performances series. About a dozen full-time instructors are also being let go.

“The biggest issue is the institutional knowledge that is being lost,” Weygand said. “Some people who have been here a long time have an incredible amount of knowledge that is not in a file or a booklet. But what we are doing right now is looking at how to restructure and retrofit the university so we first and foremost meet the curriculum needs of our students.”

jjordan@projo.com