BRIDGEWATER, Mass. (AP) – University of Massachusetts President William Bulger on Monday called the governor’s proposal to reorganize the state’s public college and university system an “attack on public higher education.”

Bulger’s comment came in remarks prepared for delivery to a joint legislative Ways and Means committee hearing at Bridgewater State College.

The proposal “seems to have been something just thrown together without very much study,” he told reporters before he was to appear in front of the lawmakers Monday afternoon.

It was Bulger’s first public appearance since Gov. Mitt Romney, in his fiscal 2004 budget, proposed eliminating the UMass president’s office as part of the reorganization.

Romney aides have said the decision was not directed at Bulger, but rather at bringing the UMass system under tighter administrative control.

At an unrelated appearance in Somerville on Monday, Romney said, “This is a proposal we would be making regardless of who was president of the University of Massachusetts.”

Romney’s top education advisor, Peter Nessen, told the committee hearing that the reorganization plan will save about $150 million and not hurt students or their education.

Also under the proposal, some colleges would be merged and student tuition would be increased.

Some lawmakers raised concerns that increasing costs would hurt students. But Nessen said the state would guarantee financial aid to every student who needs it.

“My great concern is that while we wrestle with a state fiscal gap of $3 billion dollars, we not pass the cost onto students,” Nessen said.

Romney’s plan also calls for privatizing the UMass Medical School in Worcester and spinning off the flagship Amherst campus from the current five-university system.

Bulger said he’s afraid that will weaken the other UMass campuses by reducing them to job training schools.

“I’d say that’s a very limited view of education,” Bulger said.