LSU sent out 219 notices Friday telling instructors they will not have jobs come 2011, LSU spokesman Herb Vincent said.

In the coming weeks, that number will grow to 354 full-time instructors and 130 part-time instructors, bringing the total eventually to 484 faculty, Vincent said.

The first 219 faculty legally required a full 12-months notice, he said, based on their years of LSU employment.

About $43 million has been cut from LSU’s main campus during the past 13 months, including more than $12 million this month. Overall, higher education statewide was sliced nearly $250 million during the same time primarily because of declining state revenue.

Although the letters sent to faculty state “your employment will end” in January 2011, many of the terminations could be withdrawn depending on the severity of additional budget cuts this summer. Also, some of those let go could be rehired at less cost with reduced teaching duties.

LSU has about 1,300 tenured and nontenured faculty and 3,800 staff members. LSU staff can be laid off with much less notice, often about 30 days.

....Steven Pomarico, an LSU biology instructor slated to get a letter, said laying off many instructors who teach core undergraduate classes of 100 students or more will put a huge strain on the university.

Doing so will force more research faculty to take on additional teaching duties, thus hurting LSU’s research strengths and cutting down on the grants and revenue coming into the school, he said.

Also, fewer instructors means students will take longer to graduate, Pomarico said.

“You can’t not teach introductory biology. That’s a nonpossibility,” Pomarico said earlier this week. “It’s a money saver to cut me, but it costs the university.”

In a prepared statement Friday, LSU Chancellor Michael Martin said the “budget cuts to LSU leave us no choice.”