Associated Students, Inc. and a newly established Faculty Senate task force received deadlines last week to present alternatives to President Donald Gerth?s decision to eliminate the Monday-Wednesday-Friday scheduling format.

Faculty Senate created a work group Oct. 25 consisting of 12 members, including seven department chairs and two representatives from ASI. The group has until Nov. 8 to draft a proposal, when Faculty Senate members will discuss it, said Senate Chair Bob Buckley.

The Senate will then vote on the proposal Nov. 15, Buckley said. If approved, it will be sent to Gerth in accordance with his Nov. 16 deadline.

“The 50-minute Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule was supposed to solve a problem, but a schedule change may not be the answer to our problem here,” Buckley said. “We may have to look at a variety of other options to solve the problem.”

ASI?s Flexible Scheduling Task Force was also granted an extension to provide its own proposal of alternatives to Gerth?s plan, said ASI President Artemio Pimentel. That deadline was pushed from Oct. 26 to Nov. 5.

ASI?s group is using surveys filled out by Sacramento State students to help come up with a plan of action, Pimentel said. As of last Monday, nearly 1,000 surveys had been collected.

“We have been working hard to get surveys out to have students voice their opinions,” Pimentel said. “I met with President Gerth last week, and one of his priorities was scheduling.”

Gerth?s decision to extend the deadlines essentially freezes any schedule planning for the 2002-03 academic year until Nov. 16.

“The President has sent out a note to all deans and chairs of departments to put everything on hold,” Buckley said.

Gerth initially approved the plan, which would eliminate Monday-Wednesday classes next year, on Oct. 1 after establishing a task force a month earlier to examine classroom overcrowding. Students and faculty quickly jumped on the plan, however: students due to their lack of involvement in the decision, and faculty because some didn?t think it would create any more space.

The Senate work group includes seven Department Chairs: Val Smith (Communications Studies), Jaime Alvayay (Organizational Behavior and Environments), Susan Gomez (Child Development), Don Warner (Computer Science), Fred Baldini (Kinesiology and Health Sciences), Laurel Heffernan (Biological Sciences) and Tammy Bourg (Psychology).

The group also includes Executive Committee members Joan Bauerly and Jean-Pierre Bayard, ASI representatives Pimentel and Chief of Staff Kevin Greene, Space Management Coordinator Denise Ramos and Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs Paul Noble, who authored the original plan to eliminate the Monday-Wednesday format.

The Office of Institutional Research is processing the information in the surveys for the ASI group, according to Greene, who also chairs the student task force.

” Student surveys will be distributed in the Library Quad at various hours to target a wide range of students,” Greene said.

Pimentel said the surveys give the students input into the decision, something they didn?t have when it was initially handed down.

“The surveys help students voice their opinions,” Pimentel said. “Our job is to see what stand we are going to take on behalf of the students.”