State budget cuts might force Georgia Highlands College (GHC) to close its campus in Paulding County and abandon plans to establish a campus in Douglas County.

GHC would continue classes through this semester even if the General Assembly, governor and Board of Regents follow through with cuts to balance budgets, said Dana Davis, GHC director of college relations. She said a legislative subcommittee has asked colleges to list possible cuts if tuition isn’t increased and the $113 million the governor has proposed to cover the rising number of students in the state university system is eliminated for the FY2011 budget, both of which might or might not happen.

If tuition doesn’t rise and the $113 million proposed is cut, GHC could see its budget slashed by $2.4 million — on top of $1.8 million cut earlier — totaling about 25 percent of the college’s budget.

“We’ve taken hits several years running,” said Davis. “We’ve already had furloughs and cut programs.”

She said GHC hopes that if funding for the Paulding campus, which began classes last year, is eliminated, it will be only temporary. The economy “has got to get better someday,” she said.

“The long-term implications for the state are pretty drastic,” said Davis. “We’re already losing some faculty members who are going to states without furloughs.”

If the cuts are made, GHC would also stop renovating a former Cub Foods Store in Douglas County for a campus there but would lose about $1 million for abandoning its lease.

Other potential GHC cuts include abandoning its dental hygiene program, “one of our flagship programs” which is losing $1.2 million in federal stimulus funding next year. “Science programs are expensive,” she said, adding that “there’s no program like that close by” and that it would affect the community, which takes advantage of low-cost teeth-cleaning services. “Thousands of people use that,” Davis said. “It would be a huge loss to the community.”

Other potential cuts on the list GHC was asked to compile include reducing the number of nursing students despite growing need for nurses; eliminating funding for library collections, including publications and new research materials; the physical education program; reducing counseling and disability services to a few part-time people; advertising; print publications for students, which would be only on line; and the position of vice president for student services.

“Thirty to 31 jobs would be lost” if the list of cuts is approved, she said.

The Paulding campus now has about 250 students.

“We’ve grown by leaps and bounds,” she said. “Paulding County has been wonderful.” Paulding and Douglas counties “are underserved areas that need a university system presence,” she said.

In compiling the list of potential cuts, GHC tried to determine “what we can do to impact the least number of students and be as surgical and strategic as possible. This has been gut-wrenching for everybody.”

Closing the Paulding campus is not yet a done deal, Davis said.

“This is the first step in the process,” she said. The legislative “Appropriations subcommittee asked for this” and will meet (today) with the university system chancellor. Then the General Assembly would vote on budget-cutting measures, which the governor could accept or not, “and whatever the final number is comes back to the Board of Regents” for specific cuts.

“There are still quite a few steps that could take several months,” Davis said.