Where did my classes go? With budget cuts forcing public colleges to drop classes and raise tuition, graduating isn't as easy as it used to be.

The moment registration opens, Michele D. Hannah dives for courses with a fury produced by desperation. "When will I get the classes I need to graduate?" wonders Hannah, class of "I-have-no-idea," at the University of Iowa.

Classes have gotten so tight, or so scarce, that Hannah says she trolls the university's Web site every few hours for the stray course opening that might suddenly appear.

But it probably won't. At many public universities, grappling with record budget cuts and rising enrollments, the classroom is no longer being spared. After whittling away at staff, coaxing professors to juggle more classes, cutting sports teams, and neglecting roof repairs, many public universities have begun chopping away at academics, making it harder for some students to graduate on time.

The University of Illinois has canceled 1,000 classes in hundreds of subjects this year. The University of Colorado has cut academic programs in journalism, business, and engineering. At California State University campuses, up to 30,000 students could be turned away this spring.

Virginia Tech is scrapping an education major and suspending mandatory history classes because it does not have enough professors. The University of Nebraska is canceling Portuguese, closing some research laboratories, shedding exercise science, and cutting back on Russian and museum studies.

"The academic cuts are probably the most severe I've seen," says Edward M. Elmendorf, senior vice president at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities in Washington. "And I don't see any mitigation in them in the coming year."

RESULTS MAY VARY

Universities have taken pains to trim in the least harmful ways, shearing courses or majors in hopes of leaving the academic core intact. Still, the budget cuts have taken a toll.

What all this means for students will vary from campus to campus, even from major to major. Yet one of the most common academic cuts has been a reduction in the number of course sections offered--that is, how many times a class is taught in a given semester or year. While the course may not be eliminated, it becomes less accessible, leading to what some worry is an inevitable consequence. "It will influence students' ability to graduate on time," says Larry D. Roper, vice provost for student affairs at Oregon State University.

This is especially true because so many students are working to pay for their educations, making their schedules tight. When classes are not offered frequently enough, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to attend, and therefore to graduate on time.

TUITION BOOSTS

In addition, when colleges raise tuition to help balance their budgets, as many have been doing, students may need to work more to pay their bills. But that means they have less time and less flexibility to work toward their degrees.

"It frustrates me, even makes me angry, to know that my parents are paying more and more for an education which is giving me less and less," says Valerie Szybala, a third-year student at Virginia Tech.

In addition to working multiple jobs, commuting for hours to save on housing costs, and going to summer school to graduate as quickly as possible, students are coming up with other ways of getting around the system Dennis Linders, a University of Florida senior, is so frustrated by how hard it is to find courses he wants to take that he is abandoning campus this spring, leaving behind the revelry of his final semester, Linders says, just to find classes--in the Netherlands.

Robert Kellman, a sophomore at the University of Michigan, painted porches all summer but did not make enough money to cover the approximately $15,000 he must pay as an out-of-state student each semester.

So, he says, he is planning to spend his junior year abroad, at a cheaper foreign college--perhaps in Egypt or England--where he can earn the same credits for less. Kellman says, "My hand was kind of forced because of the money."

Tuition on the Rise

It's been getting more expensive to attend four-year public colleges. This graph shows the average yearly cost of tuition and fees, adjusted for inflation. (Room and board is not included.)

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Why States Are Hurting

Many states are suffering their worst budget problems in decades. What's the cause?

In general, it's a combination of a sluggish national economy, which has yet to kick back into high gear, and big increases in state spending during the economic boom of the 1990s.

When the economy slows, corporations sell fewer products and services, and people earn less in salaries and from investments like stocks and bonds. In turn, people and corporations pay less in taxes, which states count on to pay for services, such as police, courts, and education.

State governments generally assume some growth in revenue and spending in planning their budgets each year. Now that many states have less to spend than they had expected, they are scrambling to make cuts, raise taxes or both.

A recent survey by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers found that 37 states had cut a total of $14.5 billion from their 2003 budgets.

In addition to spending less than expected on higher education, here's what a few states are doing to save money:

* Missouri: Told janitors to unscrew every third light bulb in government buildings.

* Virginia: Feeding prisoners only two meals a day, instead of three, on holidays and weekends.

* New Jersey and Illinois: Levying higher taxes on casinos.

* Massachusetts: Imposing a $25 surcharge on speeding tickets.