A legislative proposal to cut more than $600-million from the Arizona university system’s budget over the next 18 months drew nearly 1,000 people to a meeting of the Arizona Board of Regents today, a record crowd, the University of Arizona’s UA News site reported.

The proposal, by the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, would slash $243-million in the remainder of the current fiscal year and $388-million more in the 2010 fiscal year.

The Associated Press reported that in their briefings to the regents, presidents of the system’s three institutions — the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and Northern Arizona University — all said that if cuts were instituted, whole departments and colleges would have to be eliminated. —Charles Huckabee