Georgia Perimeter College cutting nearly 300 jobs - Atlanta News, Weather, Traffic, and Sports | FOX 5

Georgia Perimeter College informed 282 employees on Monday that they will lose their jobs.

The cutbacks come as the metro Atlanta college struggles with a big budget shortfall.

The college, which has been open for 50 years,  had expanded rapidly in recent years, but now 215 full time staff members and 67 part-time employees at the school's five campuses were told their jobs would be cut.

Rob Watts, the school's interim president, said his first priority was to protect classroom instruction.

"The college must now focus on the adjustments necessary to operate at lower staffing levels. It will not be easy.  We will all need to be as flexible and patient as possible while we make the adjustments," Watts said in a statement.

Students said they hope they'll get the classes they need to complete degree programs.

Student Kim Munerlyn said she was surprised to hear of the cutbacks because she thought more people were going back to school in today's difficult economic environment.

The layoffs do not affect tenured or tenure-track professors.

"The class sizes will be bigger. And I guess there's going to be some cuts to some of the tutoring, which could affect some of the students," said chemistry professor Mike Sakuta, who said professors will all pitch in to keep quality high.

State auditors are now reviewing Georgia Perimeter's books to determine how the school developed a $16 million budget shortfall.

Georgia Perimeter is the third largest public college in the state with about 27,000 students.