A LEANER UMASS OPENS WITH MUCH BIGGER CLASSES SCHOOLS ADJUST WITH BUDGET CUTS - The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)

[A PUBLISHED CORRECTION HAS BEEN ADDED TO THIS STORY.] AMHERST -At least 40 people stood ahead of her in line at the bursar's officeyesterday morning, but Stacia Potter was unperturbed as she sippedcoffee and surveyed the scene on the first day of classes at theUniversity of Massachusetts at Amherst.

'I actually thought it would be a lot worse,' said Potter, a finearts major.

For the 17,500 undergraduates who returned to the state's largestcampus this week, there were good reasons to expect a degree ofchaos: An $80 million reduction in state funding for the five-campusUMass system last spring forced administrators to spend the summercutting budgets, laying off support staff, and pulling money fromresearch, sports, the arts and other areas.

The budget cuts, combined with early-retirement deals that reducedthe faculty on the Amherst campus by more than 100 professors, meantthat some classes were larger yesterday and some electives were gone.

But most students interviewed yesterday had a full slate ofclasses, even if some weren't their first choices, and the lineoutside the registrar's office did not exceed a dozen students allday.

Still, there were disappointments. Physical education classes werecut 'due to severe budget cuts,' according to a note on the websitefor class registration.

'I never got to take a gym class,' said Robyn Wallace, a juniormajoring in hotel and restaurant management, who said she waitresses20 hours a week to pay her school expenses. She'll have to work moreshifts to cover a $750 fee increase at UMass next semester, but saidshe doesn't feel like she's getting less for her money. Her firstclass yesterday, in managerial accounting, had nine students, shesaid.

Elsewhere, classes normally limited to 200 students were uncapped,allowing large auditoriums to fill to capacity, and demand pushed upenrollments of some mid-sized classes. Senior Lori Latimer said sheshowed up for a low-level French class expecting 30 students, andfound 50.

In the psychology department, one of the university's largest, thenumber of majors is about 1,200 and growing while the faculty hasshrunk with retirements, from 50 to 40, Chairman Melinda Novak said.As a result, the largest lectures are larger, but the department isoffering four small undergraduate seminars on cutting-edge topicseach semester.

'It puts a tremendous burden on the faculty because they don'tnecessarily get another teaching assistant when the class sizedoubles,' she said.

The day before the start of classes, one introduction topsychology section had 468 of 469 seats filled. Introduction tobiology drew more than 400 students to the Mahar auditorium, thelargest classroom on campus, yesterday afternoon. Moving easilybetween the traditional chalkboard and the projection screen over hishead, professor Randall Phillis seemed undaunted by the crowd,telling students he hopes to learn many of their names. 'You're goingto love this course - I promise,' he said.

A larger-than-expected freshman class of between 4,000 and 4,200students added to the demand for classes and strained housingresources; 145 students were assigned to live in hotels, and 400 morewere given temporary quarters in dorms, mostly in converted lounges,a spokeswoman said.

Chancellor John Lombardi said yesterday he expected returningstudents to notice few consequences of the recent $21 million budgetcut. His budget plan postponed construction of a new recreationcenter for students and slashed $500,000 from the Fine Arts Center, amove that will mean fewer performances. But most cuts were inresearch, staff development, and alumni affairs and at the UMassExtension Service and the University of Massachusetts Press.

At UMass-Boston, Chancellor Jo Ann Gora said students will receivemore services, including an expanded welcome week and additionalpublications, despite an $11 million budget cut. To balance thebudget, she has cut research and community outreach, trimmed her ownoffice by more than $300,000, and is planning new ways to make money,like selling ads on campus buses and shutting down the campusentirely during the Christmas break.

At UMass-Lowell, reductions in staffing at the bursar's office,computing center, and library may mean longer waits for studentsseeking help this fall, Chancellor Jean McCormack said. The schoolhas replaced about half the faculty lost to early retirements; classsizes have risen slightly, but still average in the low 20s, shesaid.

[CORRECTION - DATE: Saturday, September 6, 2003: Correction:Because of a reporting error, a story in Thursday's City & Regionsection about students returning to classes at the University ofMassachusetts incorrectly identified Jean MacCormack as thechancellor of UMass-Lowell. She is chancellor at UMass-Dartmouth, andwas describing changes on her campus.)

Jenna Russell can be reached at jrussell@globe.com.