Monday-Wednesday classes will be dropped in favor of Monday-Wednesday-Friday classes according to a memo outlining the plan from President Donald Gerth.

The Sacramento State Faculty Senate offered little objection Thursday to the plan presented by Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs Paul Noble that eliminates “prime time” Monday-Wednesday classes in favor of Monday-Wednesday-Friday classes.

Tuesday-Thursday classes, labs, and one or two unit courses would not change.

Gerth, who attended the meeting to gauge faculty response, decided to alter the schedule to reduce classroom overcrowding through what he said would be “a more efficient use of our campus space.”

Before handing down Monday?s decision, Gerth said, “I’m hearing both sides. Ultimately the decision rests with me.”

The plan calls for fall 2002 Monday-Wednesday-Friday classes to run 50 minutes per session between peak enrollment hours of 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Classes offered outside those hours could still follow a Monday-Wednesday or Wednesday-Friday 75-minute format.

Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs Paul Noble laid out the rationale for changing the schedule in a 20-minute presentation to the Faculty Senate.

“This semester, all prime time classroom space on campus is full,” he said. “Next year we expect another 5 percent increase in enrollment. And Friday’s a ghost town around here.”

A university study of enrollment patterns for the fall 2000 semester showed that Monday-Wednesday classes accounted for 43 percent of lecture enrollment. Tuesday-Thursday sessions were most popular with 49 percent. Labs, distance learning, internship and field work courses were not a factor in the study because, according to Noble, they do not impact classroom space.

“Friday is the one day that the class space doesn’t get used,” Noble said. “The only other alternative is to build more buildings, and that isn’t going to happen for some time.”

Noble was part of a task force of administrators and faculty commissioned by Gerth Sept. 5 to examine classroom overcrowding and propose solutions. The task force had seven members?professors Jaime Alvayay, Thomas Heflin, Mark Hennelly and Richard Kornweibel, College of Arts and Letters Associate Dean Nancy Tooker, Health and Human Services Dean Marilyn Hopkins and Noble. Students were not on the committee.

According to Noble, the group scheduled to meet Sept. 11, but had to reschedule after the campus was closed that day. They met Sept. 24 and 25, and Noble drafted the recommendation to change the fall 2002 schedule on Sept. 27.

Monday-Wednesday-Friday format would increase available weekly class space by 25 percent, Noble said.

“We’ll be able to offer six classes in a six-hour block of time as opposed to our current system of that allows only four classes in six hours,” he said.

Comments from the members of the Faculty Senate during last week?s meeting indicated a general resignation that the new class format is a necessary, if inconvenient, change.

Val Smith, chairman of the Communications Studies Department, said that his department “has worked very hard” to maximize available class space through distance learning, weekend and night courses.

“We’ve already exceeded the targets of the new proposal,” he said. Smith said that the new scheme penalizes programs already maximizing facility use and he hoped that flexibility for upper division programs is part of the final plan.

“It’s a little like saying to us, ‘Your sister didn’t eat her broccoli, so no dessert for you,'” Smith said, provoking a few chuckles from the faculty. “But whatever is decided, we’ll get by.”

Sac State started the Monday-Wednesday schedule in 1996 when enrollment was in decline. According to Noble, the University gave each department the flexibility to schedule classes as they saw fit to maximize staff and facilities. Before then, Monday-Wednesday-Friday classes were the rule.

Now class enrollment has grown between 5 and 7 percent each of the last three years and administrators anticipate 1,000 more students on campus for the fall 2002 semester.

Gerth told the Hornet last week that he would decide any change for the fall 2002 schedule by early October to allow administration time to plan staffing and curriculum.

Hopkins believes that the challenge of growing student enrollment is a positive.

“The crowding that we perceive is such a problem is really a good thing. I remember when college student enrollment in this state was drooping and we had to talk about cutting classes and laying off faculty,” she said. “Things could be worse.”

Hopkins realizes that any schedule change will inconvenience faculty and students, but “it?s worth a little sacrifice and compromise to provide education to more people.”

The State Hornet attempted to contact the Deans of other colleges but most were unavailable. College of Engineering and Computer Science Dean Braja M. Das said, “No comment.” through an assistant.