Scientists are warning Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that proposed cuts to the University of California’s budget would “undermine prospects for economic recovery and damage California’s competitiveness for decades.”

The San Francisco Chronicle’s David Perlman reports that “[m]ore than 300 of the nation’s most noted scientists from all 10 University of California campuses” signed a letter delivering that warning to Schwarzenegger and to legislative leaders. The University of California system faces a proposed $800 million in cuts as part of a statewide effort to make up a $26 billion budget shortfall.

Perlman reports that UC Santa Cruz astronomer Mark Krumholz began circulating a draft of the letter two weeks ago. It has now been signed by 300 scientists who are members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering or the Institute of Medicine, and more scientists continue to sign on. The letter points out that much of the $5.2 billion in growth projected for California’s technology-based economy this decade is fueled by UC scientists and doctors, and that the founders of Intel, Apple, Sun Microsystems and MySpace all have UC degrees.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reports that the California State University system is reeling at the prospect of similarly deep cuts. At a special meeting on Tuesday, Cal State Chancellor Charles B. Reed said “that he will ask the university’s trustees to approve an additional student fee hike of 15% to 20% for this fall, and enrollment reductions of 32,000 students in the year to follow,” the Times reports.

The Cal State system had already approved a 10 percent fee increase in May, and faces a projected $584 million in cuts. The Times reports that Reed also “warned of mass layoffs if the faculty union fails to go along with a separate proposal for a university-wide, two-day-a-month furlough plan designed to eliminate $275 million of the $584-million budget gap.”