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CHAPEL HILL — UNC President Erskine Bowles said Thursday proposed budget cuts to universities would cut at its “academic core.”

“We’re going to lose hundreds of people, and it’s going to hurt this university,” Bowles said at a Board of Governors meeting. “It’s going to hurt our academic core.”

Bowles said Gov. Bev Perdue’s proposed state budget reduces spending at the system’s 16 campuses by $195 million in the next academic year, or about 6.4 percent at each campus.

Since employee costs make up about 75 percent of the system’s expenses, Bowles said there would be no way around eliminating vacant positions and laying off staff and faculty.

“We’re going to lose 400 [to] 500 folks,” Bowles said.

In December, each UNC campus was asked to prepare plans for budget cuts of up to 7 percent. Those plans, once considered worst-case scenarios, are now painfully close to reality for many of the schools. The Board of Governors heard a number of plans from chancellors Thursday, including leaders from UNC-Charlotte and East Carolina University.

Bowles said the schools are preparing as best they can, but they’re going to feel the pain of the cuts.

Richard Mann, vice chancellor for finance and administration at UNC-CH, said Perdue’s 6.4 percent cuts are likely to be the best offer the university gets in the budget process. He said the state legislature will likely propose even deeper cuts before a compromise is reached.

“I’m going to work as hard as I can to keep that from happening,” Bowles said. “But people are going to feel some pain.”

If the final cuts come in at 7 percent, the impact on Greensboro could be serious. That would bring as many as 109 layoffs at UNCG and 66 at N.C. A&T, university officials said.

Some of the positions eliminated may now be vacant, officials said — but real layoffs would be necessary, including some faculty.

“As hard as we try, there’s no way around it,” Bowles said. “We are going to have larger classes, less student advising and counseling, higher faculty-to-student ratio. All of this will lead to lower retention and graduation rates.”

Bowles said he realizes the weakened economy has put Perdue in a tough situation, and he wants the university system to join with her to balance the budget.

“I’ve had to balance some budgets in my time,” said Bowles, who served as White House chief of staff for President Bill Clinton.

“There are always tough choices, and she’s made some tough choices — some of which I don’t like.”

Bowles said that whatever the governor or the legislature suggest, he and the Board of Governors will fight to protect higher education as the economy continues to worsen.

“We’re going to be team players,” Bowles said. “But nobody should make any mistake about what we are going to do: We are going to defend the academic core of this university. It takes generations to build a university system like we have here.

“And you can destroy it in a second if you don’t nourish it and sustain it.”

Bowles, 63, said growing up in Greensboro taught him about the importance of higher education to rebuilding an economy.

“I remember the economic implosion in my youth when factories and textile mills were just gone,” Bowles said. “I know it’s because of our community colleges and our universities that we were able to weather that economic implosion.”

“Students will need the skills we can give them in this new, knowledge-based economy when we come out of this recession,” Bowles said. “And come out of it we will.”

Contact Joe Killian at 373-7023 or joe.killian@news-record.com