Two B.C. colleges plan to lay off staff and cut programs in order to meet budget cuts imposed by the provincial government.

Students and faculty of Vancouver Community College turned out to a board meeting Thursday night in a last-minute bid to save their programs.

The college board is planning to make major cuts to academic programs, eliminate hundreds of student spaces and lay off up to 80 faculty members in order to make up a $5.8-million deficit.

Keri O'Brien and several other students in the sign language and deaf studies program showed up to protest the potential loss of a unique and valuable resource.

"I know if it hadn't been offered, I'd still be working at a coffee shop right now and that's not what I want to do for the rest of my life," said O'Brien.

VCC is among the hardest hit of all institutions in B.C., but the layoffs and cuts are affecting post-secondary institutions across the province after Advanced Education Minister Murray Coell reduced overall funding by 2.6 per cent in March.

Terry Mills is the head of the business management program at VCC, where he's taught for 21 years, but now his entire department is facing the axe.

"We had cuts a couple of years ago, but never to this extent. This is a major turn for Vancouver Community College, going in what appears to be in a new direction, and business management appears to be one area they would like to exit."

Other programs facing possible cuts or elimination are English as a second language, science, math, sign language and deaf studies, counselling and telecommunications.

The VCC board will make a final decision about its programs on May 29. Previously the college estimated 1,000 student placements would be eliminated.

Malaspina cuts staff

Meanwhile, seven faculty members from Malaspina University-College in Nanaimo received layoff notices Thursday.

The news came after Premier Gordon Campbell's announcement earlier this week that the college will receive university status and be renamed Vancouver Island University.

Dominique Roelants, a professor in the department of computing science at Malaspina, said the cuts have made his degree program impossible to run, and are only going to worsen the skills shortage in British Columbia.

"The premier talked about us being able to offer the education that people needed in their community. Well, the reality is that students in this area are not going to be able to do the degree program in Nanaimo," said Roelants.