Alternatives to a controversial class schedule change from Monday-Wednesday to Monday-Wednesday-Friday top the agenda of the Associated Students, Inc. board meeting today at 1:30 p.m. in the University Union’s Foothill Suite.

The meeting comes after last Wednesday’s special session at which ASI officials said they have a “Plan B” if Sacramento State President Donald Gerth ignores the recommendations of an ASI task force charged with providing alternatives to his mandate for a Monday-Wednesday-Friday class schedule beginning next fall.

“If we realize we were blatantly neglected, there is a Plan B,” ASI Chief of Staff Kevin Greene said.

Greene’s comment came in response to questions about Gerth’s offer to consider > ASI alternatives to a plan eliminating 75-minute classes on Mondays and > Wednesdays between 9 a.m. and 1:50 p.m. The plan mandates that all 3-unit classes during those “prime time” hours meet Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 50 minutes per session.

Students voiced concern whether Gerth reached out to ASI to placate students who complained about their lack of voice in the matter.

“I think he made up his mind a long time ago,” said one student. “This is a done deal.”

Others asked whether ASI has enough time to complete the task. The task force has until Wednesday at 5 p.m. to forward its ideas to Gerth, a deadline he set during an impromptu meeting with ASI 12 days ago.

Greene, who heads the task force, did not specify what “Plan B” is, but the comment came minutes after a student-led sit-in protest at Gerth’s Sacramento Hall offices. More than 20 students gathered to protest student exclusion from his decision to eliminate the campus’s four-day prime-time class schedule beginning fall 2002.

“We all know what I’m talking about,” Greene said in reference to “Plan B.”

ASI first considered organizing a demonstration after Gerth told ASI President Artemio Pimentel nearly two weeks ago that he would not reconsider or postpone the schedule change, even though no formal student input was part of his decision.

And that decision was the reason more than 120 students and a handful of faculty members filled the Foothill Suite for the special session to see ASI approve legislation charging a student-led task force.

The task force was commissioned to perform research, conduct a student survey and organize a town hall meeting before ASI submits alternatives or requests a postponement today.

Students asked if there was time for Gerth to reverse his decision, but Sac State’s Vice President of Academic Affairs Paul Noble said delay would hurt incoming students next year.

“Delay is a possibility,” Noble said, “but we may have a couple of thousand students who won’t thank us when they can’t get classes next year.”

Other students questioned whether Gerth could be trusted to give any suggestions a fair hearing.

“Will it really make any difference?” asked one student of ASI”s last-ditch efforts.

“I can’t say, but I think (Gerth) has to at least take good ideas into consideration,” Greene said.

Professor Michael Fitzgerald, faculty advisor to The State Hornet, suggested that ASI petition Gerth to postpone any decision.

“You guys have been given an impossible task to complete in such a short time,” Fitzgerald said. “One alternative is that you ask for President Gerth to delay his decision for a year to allow time for a complete study.”

But Noble said the flexible schedule, begun in 1996 when campus enrollment was down, is out of step with the swelling student population and limited facilities of recent years.

Fitzgerald also questioned whether a presidential mandate is appropriate given the role of deans in the scheduling process.

“My dean has the power to schedule me for a 4 p.m. class. I wouldn’t like it, but it could be done,” he said.

But Noble said the deans have failed to efficiently use campus class space, necessitating Gerth’s move.

“Six years ago, flexible scheduling was allowed on this campus. The deans are not doing the job. Entry level classes are especially overcrowded,” Noble said.

Some students agree with Gerth’s plan.

“I see this as a way to increase student retention,” student Corey Martin said.