Colorado State University chancellor Michael Martin says he has been kicked around before, and so if there are discontented people awaiting him at Friday’s meeting with faculty and staff at the system’s Pueblo campus, so be it.

There will be.

“He’s been a hatchet man throughout his career, and he was hired to do that here. He wants to steer the resources here up north and create CSU Denver,” said Tim McGettigan, a sociology professor at CSU Pueblo. “It’s astonishing how narrow-minded he’s being.”

The meeting is being held to discuss job cuts at the school. In December, Martin and CSU Pueblo president Lesley DiMare said the school was running at a $3.3 million deficit and, in order to balance the 2014-15 budget, about 50 positions might be eliminated.

On Thursday, Martin said the actual number will be closer to 20-25, with salary cuts and not filling some open positions making up most of the difference. Martin said his presence Friday is in support of DiMare, who’s spearheading the budget process.

He added that despite claims from McGettigan and opponents that the deficit numbers are made up, the problem is real. He also said there is no plan for CSU to create a campus in Denver at Pueblo’s expense.

Martin said in December the campus has been getting by over the past few years because of $14 million in one-time stimulus money it got from the federal government in 2008.

The CSU system also provided another $2 million in financial support to Pueblo last year, he said.

Student Shaylee Glover said she was told by one of her professors that the faculty does not know what services might be cut.

“It’s kind of worried me because one of the things that we were told might be cut are tutors, and that’s something I use,” she said.

Pueblo was perhaps the only school in the state not to raise tuition last year, making the choice in the hopes it would attract more students. But enrollment decreased, costing the school revenue.

Martin said the system has committed to providing another $2 million next year, but if enrollment declines again, there’s a chance the school will still be facing a deficit.

“We have to make X equal Y. This isn’t my math, I’m working with the numbers that they’ve given us,” Martin said, referring to a report provided by an on-campus budget committee that included, among others, CSU Pueblo administration, faculty, staff and students. “Some of the recommendations they made are much bigger and more draconian than what we’re talking about.”

Martin said the moves are being made to support the Pueblo students. McGettigan disagrees.

“We serve a special group of people who only wants to do better for themselves, their families and the community,” he said. “The chancellor is dismissing that because he wants to create an empire in Denver — his dream is our nightmare.”

Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292, acotton@denverpost.com or twitter.com/ anthonycottondp

The Associated Press contributed to this report.