HONOLULU -- University of Hawaii professors, faculty, staff and students started a march and teach-in on Wednesday morning in protest of the ongoing budget crisis.

More than 500 people turned out for the teach-in rally on the lawn of Hawaii Hall at UH Manoa.

The protest comes as members of University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, the union representing the UH professors, vote on a new contract proposal that calls for a 5 percent pay cut and a payroll lag.

The voting began on Monday and ends on Wednesday.

The group claimed UH and governmental leaders have not done enough to protect the 10-campus UH system from $66 million in budget cuts.

"No one disputes that the economy in Hawaii is in trouble, but we most certainly reject the notion that a good short-term strategy is to short-change education," UH Hawaiian Studies professor Jon Osorio said.

Some students cut classes to attend the 1.5-hour long midday rally in the middle of the UH Manoa campus.

"We need a quality education here in this state. We need to keep our strong minds, our strong opio, here to lead in the future," Associated Students of the University of Hawai'i at Manoa President Mark Ing said.

Faculty organizers did not invite UH Manoa Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw to speak. So, she sat and listened and told KITV she is upset, too.

"Everybody's hurting financially, so we have our share to do, but the share that we're expected to carry is really too heavy," Hinshaw said.

While the public school teachers' new contract has furloughs, it guarantees no teacher layoffs in the next two years. The contract proposal the professors received does not rule out layoffs, even for tenured faculty.

"Everybody's trying to avoid that, if humanly possible. We don't have any programs that we have on a list or plans for that, but it's always a concern when we have a $66 million cut and the money's already being taken out," Hinshaw said.