Student outrage and a possible violation of university policy spurred Associated Students, Inc. to draft a resolution and start a petition drive last week asking President Donald Gerth to revisit his decision to put Sacramento State on a five-day-per-week schedule beginning fall 2002.

At issue is whether Gerth made the decision with student input. As reported in The State Hornet, a task force of faculty and administration forwarded the schedule proposal after meeting twice last month. No students were part of that committee, a point that has raised concern among students and ASI officials.

“I?m very surprised that President Gerth didn?t ask me or any other students to sit on this committee,” ASI President Artemio Pimentel.

But Luke Wood, who coauthored the resolution with Calvin Davis, questioned whether ASI board members are united in their resolve to gain a student voice in the matter.

“We?re divided,” Wood said. “Look, we get a parking pass, we get paid, we get priority registration, we get lunches with the administration. And this creates a relationship where we become the administration?s puppets. They?ve got a lot of the board in their pocket.”

Wood and Davis are spearheading the petition drive and hope to get 2000 signatures before ASI?s meeting today at 1 p.m. in the Foothill Suite on the third floor of the Union.

“We need at least 100 students to come to the meeting, too,” Wood said. “We need a strong showing to encourage the board to stand up on this issue.”

The University Policy Manual, last revised in 1999, states that students have a “right to substantial input” in decisions affecting “policy and instructional programs.”

Gerth said he fulfilled his obligation for student input when he discussed the issue with ASI board members at a brunch in his home on Sept. 8.

“I always have an agenda for that meeting, and they usually have an agenda,” Gerth said.

Gerth said the plan was discussed at length with the board, and few members expressed concern with it at the time.

“We discussed the pluses and minuses of the change for quite a while,” Gerth said. “No one raised any significant objections except Luke Wood.”

Wood acknowledged that ASI knew of the plan 16 days before the seven-member task force met, and 19 days before Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs Paul Noble proposed it to the Faculty Senate on Sept. 27.

According to Wood, Gerth seemed to have already made up his mind about the issue at the Sept. 8 brunch.

“I objected and then discussion moved on to other topics,” Wood told The State Hornet in a telephone interview. When Wood brought up his objection again, Gerth “looked at me and said, ?You?re a diehard, aren?t you??” Wood said.

Gerth told The Hornet in an interview last week that he did not reach a conclusion about Monday-Wednesday-Friday scheduling until the evening after the Sept. 27 Faculty Senate meeting.

“I made up my mind at home between 10 and 11 o?clock Thursday night,” Gerth said.

Pimentel also said the board discussed the issue with Gerth at the brunch, but doesn?t think the president went far enough to involve ASI or any other students to provide input, resulting in a decision that leans toward the concerns of the administration.

“He saw a big advantage (for) the university, not really thinking about what students would have to go through with the schedule changes,” Pimentel said.

Wood said that he and Davis drafted their resolution Thursday. By Friday they had e-mailed it to “just about every professor on campus” asking for a response.

As of Sunday afternoon, Wood said he had received approximately 80 replies, 77 of which were supportive.