Budget cuts at the University of California have already hit students where it hurts. Enrollment caps have made it harder to get in – and those who have been admitted are paying more for their education.

Now UC employees are about to feel the pain, too.

University officials are considering cutting their pay – by 8 percent for workers making more than $46,000 and 4 percent for those making less. Regents will decide later this month whether to reduce salaries through pay cuts, furloughs or a combination of the two.

UC's 30 top executives – including President Mark Yudof and campus-level chancellors – agreed to a 5 percent pay cut at the end of May. Yudof said their salaries will be cut even further after regents decide on salary reductions for other employees.

UC workers have been examining the options for how salaries could be cut and weighing in through town hall meetings, online surveys, Internet discussion boards and thousands of e-mails. Overwhelmingly, Yudof said in a memo Tuesday, employees prefer the furlough model of taking days off without pay.

But there is little consensus on how to make a furlough work on campuses where faculty juggle teaching and research, or at medical centers where doctors and nurses must be present around the clock. Unlike most state workers who work Monday through Friday all year long, lots of UC employees are on non-traditional schedules.

"Many of us say, 'What exactly does that mean for faculty?' " said Robert Powell, chair of the UC Davis Academic Senate.

"It's just not quite clear because faculty will continue to do their research, continue to prepare for their courses."

Yudof suggested that a furlough could be achieved, in part, by converting some paid holidays into unpaid days off. UC employees get 13 paid holidays; the furlough proposal calls for full-time workers to take 21 days off without pay, and faculty who work the academic year to take 14.

Some faculty object, saying furloughs should happen on days they normally would teach so that students and parents feel the burden, too. Taking furloughs on holidays wouldn't have a visible enough impact, said Keith Watenpaugh, a professor in UC Davis' religious studies department.

"Furloughs in which faculty aren't teaching, offices are closed, labs are closed down, the library doors are barred … I think the people of the state will understand better what's at stake with this chronic underfunding of the UC system," Watenpaugh said.

"If we're going to have a pay cut, there should be a commensurate cut in what we have to do in teaching. No one wants to shortchange the students, … but the pain, we're all feeling it and it needs to be shared."

Some students said they're already feeling the pain, thank you. They don't want to lose class time so professors can make a political point.

"We're already feeling the budget cuts as students – they're cutting our programs and raising our fees," said Justin Patrizio, 21, a political science major who is active in student government.

"To request that the furloughs negatively affect student life is a little bit inconsistent with the goal of the university."

Tierney Burke, who is going into her junior year, said it's ridiculous for faculty to intentionally inconvenience students.

"Their fundamental job is to educate the student population," she said. "It's not our fault that the budget situation happened."

But faculty say the state's budget crisis isn't their fault, either.

"Students have a right to be angry that they're losing time with their professors. But that anger should be directed at the Legislature, not the University of California," said Watenpaugh.

History major Adam Thongsavat said he supports faculty who want to take furloughs on their teaching days.

"I guess this furlough day thing is more of a political action," said Thongsavat, 19. "If the furlough days were on a holiday the faculty would get less pay and it would go unnoticed. So of course they want to make a statement with it."

Another issue employees have been grappling with is whether those whose salaries are not paid by the state should also be subject to pay cuts. On the one hand, the university wants to treat all employees equitably. On the other, California doesn't save any money by cutting the salaries of professors whose research is funded by federal grants.

Because of budget cuts from the state, UC is confronting a deficit of about $800 million. About a quarter of the gap was filled by raising student fees, which will generate about $211 million. Another quarter is likely to be filled through pay cuts and furloughs, totaling $195 million.

Yudof says the rest of the cuts will have to be made by individual campuses and are likely to lead to larger classes and fewer courses.

Professors aren't the only ones who will take salary cuts. Yudof wants all of UC's nearly 180,000 workers – from groundskeepers and secretaries to administrators and emergency room doctors – to take the cuts equitably.

About a third of UC employees are represented by labor unions – more than a dozen different unions in all. UC leaders must negotiate salary reductions for those employees. But they can cut the pay of other workers, including faculty and managers, without negotiations.

Call The Bee's Laurel Rosenhall, (916) 321-1083.