Associated Students, Inc. officials said today 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 controversial Monday-Wednesday-Friday class schedule next year.

The task force has until Wednesday to forward its ideas to Gerth, a deadline he set during an unplanned meeting with ASI last Friday afternoon.

ASI officials 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.

ASI Chief of Staff Kevin Greene, who heads the task force, fielded questions from the audience ranging from whether Gerth?s proposal is merely posturing to placate students to whether ASI has enough time to complete the task.

Several students told the board they were skeptical about Gerth?s sincerity.

“If we realize we were blatantly neglected, there is a Plan B,” Greene said.

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

That decision mandates a return to the Monday-Wednesday-Friday to maximize facility use on Fridays, a format school administrators abandoned six years ago.

And that decision was the reason more than 120 students and a handful of faculty members filled the Foothill Suite for the unprecedented special session. ASI called the meeting to approve legislation charging a student-led task force to perform research, conduct a student survey and organize a town hall meeting before they submit alternatives to Gerth on Oct. 24 by 5 p.m.

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.

Pimentel echoed Greene?s sentiment.

“He will consider our proposal,” he said.

Professor Michael Fitzgerald 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.

The ASI task force is meeting again tomorrow at 8 a.m. in the ASI conference room.