SAN DIEGO -- San Diego State University's fall semester began Monday, and along with lectures and school activities are enormous budget cuts.

The state cut $584 million in funding for schools in the California State University system, including SDSU and Cal State San Marcos.

"We need to keep the educational system functioning, and the type of budget cuts we're getting, make it almost impossible to function," said SDSU Professor Edee Benkov.

For SDSU, $35 million was slashed, leaving less money to operate the school while tuition has gone up about $2,400 per semester.

"Thirty-five million dollars, and that's only $35 million because we had to raise student fees. Without that it would have been $48 million," said Benkov.

On Monday, a rally called Stand Together for SDSU was held on campus, with the student board asking students on their first day of class to stand with professors, administrators and staff to rally against state budget cuts affecting the California State University system.

"A lot of students don't know what's going on, so we want to show them exactly what's going on this summer to make sure this doesn't happen next summer," said SDSU student body president Tyler Boden.

The cuts have forced a reduction of lecturers and classes, and it will also force professors and staff to take furlough days.

"For me it's a Band-Aid; I'm going to do the best I can, but if this continues, this begins to affect everyone. We're going to see the same economic downturn as we have seen around the country and in the state," said Benkov.

Students have been faced with a 30-percent tuition hike in the past 4 months, which means they pay about $2,400 a semester. That is on top of the fact that 22,000 CSU-eligible students were turned away for this fall semester.