HONOLULU -- The University of Hawaii is expanding class sizes to meet unprecedented enrollment growth this year, but the professors' union is crying foul, saying UH cannot heap more work on instructors without negotiating with them first.

All of this is happening as UH is asking professors to take pay cuts of around 10 percent to 14 percent because of the budget crisis. In some cases, professors are being asked to handle a couple more students per class, but some classes have doubled in size.

At Kapiolani Community College, 14 percent more students have signed up for classes this year compared to last. So, officials have added two seats to high-demand courses to handle record-high enrollment.

That is good news for students like Mike Christman, who said he was only able to enroll in three of five courses he wanted, because the others were full.

"I don't think a couple extra spots is going to hurt anybody. If anything, it will help out, for those kids that want to jump in on those classes, I think it's a great idea," Christman said.

"We have added, increased class sizes by that small amount, it seems like a responsible way to try to accommodate this unprecedented demand in this very unusual time," UH Vice President for Community Colleges John Morton said.

At UH Manoa, several sections of introductory accounting classes have doubled in size this fall from 60 to 120 students. Faculty members approved that increase, UH officials said.

The faculty union said administrators are violating their contract by increasing class sizes without negotiating with the union first.

"The university administration cannot just arbitrarily double the workload of a faculty member or even increase it significantly, without the agreement of the faculty," University of Hawaii Professional Assembly Executive Director J.N. Musto said.

Many faculty members already allow extra students in their class and put in extra time.

"The full-time faculty I know are all teaching more than 40 hours. I happen to be a half-time faculty, I'm certainly putting in more than 20 hours a week with my students," Steven Hobbs said.

"We have done this in the past to respond to enrollment demand when enrollment demand exceeds the classes, so it's not a new action," Morton said.

Professors said that adding two students to a large lecture course might not significantly increase their workload, but in a writing-intensive course with lots of papers and tests, even a couple more students can add a lot of extra work.

The UHPA said it has already filed grievances over the increased class sizes and may also file a complaint with the Hawaii Labor Relations Board.