UC Berkeley’s Student Learning Center, which provides peer tutoring for undergraduate students, announced Thursday that campus administration proposed a 20% cut to its tutor and student staff budget.

More than 2,100 campus community members have since signed the SLC’s petition, which calls on campus leadership to “reconsider this reduction and protect SLC’s peer learning model.”

“A cut of this magnitude takes something away from students twice: it reduces the learning opportunities available to students seeking support, while simultaneously reducing the developmental, leadership, and employment opportunities available to the students providing that support,” the petition reads.

Campus spokesperson Dee Mostofi said in an email that the SLC has been asked to reduce 5% of its overall proposed budget in the current fiscal year.

According to Mostofi, “No final decisions have been made on how to achieve that reduction.”

“Like other universities, UC Berkeley is navigating financial pressures, and campus units that face financial challenges are working toward a multi-year plan for long-term financial sustainability,” Mostofi said in the email.

According to the SLC’s petition, a 20% cut in the tutor budget could mean a loss of about 70 peer tutor, ambassador and coordinator positions and a reduction of nearly 11,000 working hours for peer tutor staff.

Vittal Vasudevan, a peer tutor for economics, said the SLC offers individual attention and investment for students who might not have been able to afford one-on-one tutoring otherwise.

Vasudevan said many of the SLC student staffers depend on their positions to help cover tuition.

Katelyn Van Andel, a peer tutor for economics, said she hopes the petition demonstrates the scale and scope of the SLC’s support.

“It’s a message that has consequences, when you are basically telling your undergraduate population that the first organization that’s on the chopping block for budget cuts is one of the biggest and oldest support systems for undergraduate education,” Van Andel said.

Both Vasudevan and Van Andel said they signed the SLC’s petition.

In addition to urging UC Berkeley to reconsider cuts to the SLC, the petition asks for transparency and a public statement of “the rationale for targeting tutor and student assistant hiring budgets to alleviate a disproportionate share of the financial pressures of the Division of Undergraduate Education.”