CHULA VISTA, Calif. -- Southwestern College in Chula Vista is expected to make cuts for its spring semester, and 10News has learned many students and faculty members are not happy with the decisions.

When the state's economic woes threatened the school this year, SWC officials took $2.3 million from its reserves to save classes and jobs. However, despite the efforts made, cuts are inevitable come spring semester.

"There are a lot of classes I may not be able to take, and that may prevent me from transferring to SDSU or any other college I want to go to," said student Ali Sutanzai.

Individual schools at the college have been told to cut between 9 percent and 21 percent of their classes, which would mean the cancellation of an estimated 429 classes and employee layoffs.

SWC's School of Arts and Communications faces big cuts, which is bad news for Susan Sanchez, who recently returned to school to start a whole new career in the arts after being laid off from her job.

"The five teachers I had this semester taught me so much and I just can't imagine not having them," said Sanchez.

President Raj Chopra told 10News he directed deans of each school to take into account what classes are important for students to graduate or transfer. He admitted that students would be impacted by the decisions.

"I'm not going to stand here and say there's no problem. When we used to see 2 to 3 percent growth, now our money is frozen," said Chopra.

Some faculty members claimed college administrators are not doing all they can to avoid cuts. Professor Mark Van Stone told 10News he and others on the staff are willing to take a 2-percent pay cut as they have volunteered to do in the past.

"And that united us. It raised morale and it saved the college from despair. The opposite is happening now," said Van Stone.

Some on the campus feel the cuts are a sign of the times, and some students are even willing to pay more in student fees.

"If you want really good stuff on campus, you have to pay for it. We're too spoiled," said one student.