Presidents from the state's two biggest public universities will discuss Michigan's budget deficit and its effects on higher education tomorrow via the airwaves.

MSU President M. Peter McPherson and University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman will hit the radio at 2 p.m. today in a scheduled one-hour, call-in show.

The show originates from Ann Arbor's campus, at radio station WUOM 91.7, and Michigan Public Radio Network will make the program available to radio stations across the state.

Coleman will be in WUOM's studio and McPherson will be in Olds Hall, but through a conference call, the two will be on the same show.

Local radio station WKAR 870 AM will pick up the broadcast.

U-M spokeswoman Julie Peterson said there have been efforts to bring the two university presidents on the radio.

"Now that the budget situation is heating up, it seemed important for them to follow through with programs and answer questions from listeners," she said.

The state is in the midst of a $920 million budget shortfall.

MSU spokesman Terry Denbow said this is part of a bigger education effort aimed at the MSU community, which includes e-mails, letters and, in the future, columns written by university presidents across the state.

"People get their messages in different ways," he said. "We have to be accessible to as many people as possible."