Wichita ? Wichita Area Technical College plans to eliminate staff and programs and raise tuition because of budget cuts related to the college’s separation from the Wichita school district.

The college will increase tuition by 25 percent as it loses 38 percent of its $13.5 million budget starting July 1.

In addition, teachers learned last week that 31 teaching positions and 59 administrative and support jobs will be cut. Administrators haven’t decided which jobs will go.

The Wichita Board of Education will discuss the effects of the cuts Monday night.

The cuts are necessary because the school will lose the district’s financial support and its costs will increase once it splits from the district under a law passed last year.

For this academic year, the district gave the technical college a $3.6 million subsidy, but that subsidy disappears next year.

Students will receive a letter about the cuts this week, but by Friday afternoon most students at the college’s central campus — where six programs will be eliminated — already had heard the news.

Graphics student Margie Hayes said she understood why the cuts were being proposed, but was still shocked.

“They just brought us into a room and (our teachers) told us, ‘It looks like these programs are being cut, and we’re out of our jobs,”‘ Hayes said.

Technical college president Camille Kluge said the school would try to allow full-time students close to graduation to complete their programs, but many will be referred to other schools and training programs in the area.

When deciding which programs to cut, Kluge said, college officials tried to preserve core programs and eliminate those with low enrollment or those offered by another college in the area.