State college leaders were told to expect a budget cut of about $219 million for next fiscal year at meeting with Gov. Bobby Jindal on Friday.Commissioner of Higher Education Sally Clausen and all four college system presidents met with Jindal and his staff to discuss the budget. Jindal will release his proposed executive budget Friday for the 2009-10 fiscal year beginning July 1. The exact amount of the cut won’t be known until then. “We have been anticipating a budget reduction for the coming year,” Clausen said in a prepared statement. “We expect to learn the final details of the governor’s budget when it is officially released on [March] 13th.” Jindal, whose administration ordered a $55 million mid-year reduction in state funding for higher education because of declining state revenue and the national recession, told colleges to prepare for cuts between $212 million and $382 million next fiscal year. University Chancellor Michael Martin declined to comment on the possible cuts, saying he wanted to discuss the possibilities with LSU System President John Lombardi before “informing or misinforming” the University community.”Dr. Lombardi will not be commenting on the budget situation until we have official numbers from the Division of Administration,” said Charles Zewe, System spokesman.  The System released a “budget reduction exercise” Feb. 4, outlining how a worse-case scenario cut would affect the System. About 2,000 LSU System employees would lose their jobs, class offerings would decrease and class sizes would significantly increase, according to the “exercise.” The University estimates about 8,500 students would leave the University if cuts totaled 30 percent. Several scholarships would be eliminated, and several academic programs could be restructured or completely eliminated, according to the University’s own “budget reduction exercise.”—-Contact Kyle Bove at [email protected]