President Donald Gerth is nearing a decision whether to continue Sacramento State?s flexible class scheduling after the Faculty Senate voted Nov. 15 to recommend a set of controls aimed at avoiding a rigid Monday-Wednesday-Friday plan while still maximizing campus facility use beginning with the fall 2002 semester.

The Senate proposal calls for departments to schedule at least 30 percent of three-unit lecture classes in each college outside of “prime time.” “Prime time” is defined as Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.

The plan also establishes an oversight committee of deans, department chairs and faculty to annually assess facility usage goals and recommend improvements to deans and administrators.

“We need to get the decision for the fall 2002 schedule made rather soon,” Gerth said last week. “The clock is running.”

According to a memo issued by the University Office of Space Management Oct. 1, the fall 2002 and spring 2003 schedules are due Jan. 18, with final revisions including room assignments due Feb. 15.

The Senate debated the plan for more than an hour before passing it on a split voice vote as Gerth and several administrators and deans looked on.

Dissenters, such as history professor Henry Chambers, said that conflict between departments vying for days off ? particularly Fridays ? will make coordinating schedules difficult. “I can?t imagine the dean in my college embracing this,” Chambers said.

Chambers was skeptical that deans would be willing to take a more hands-on approach in coordinating class schedules and room usage for their colleges, a key part of the Faculty Senate?s plan. Under the present system, each of the 51 Sac State chairs handles each department?s schedule. And, according to Chambers, departmental self-interest could kill any spirit of goodwill needed to make the plan work.

“I can tell you that we won?t be willing to cover for people in other departments to play golf on Fridays,” Chambers said.

Still, Faculty Senate Chairman Bob Buckley, who also served on the committee that wrote the recommendation to continue flexible scheduling, said he believes the obvious need to address the problem of limited classroom capacity during peak times will unite faculty, chairs and deans.

“It?s not my impression that there would be warfare between departments,” Buckley said.

Health and Human Services Dean Marilyn Hopkins said her office already looks at course schedules and room assignments college-wide, not just on a department-by-department basis.

“There?s no great wisdom here. We work with the faculty and chairs and put everything on a spreadsheet,” Hopkins said. “Then we look at everything and tell the department chairs, ?These are the rooms, these are the times. You?re going to have to work together to work this out.?”

Marion O?Leary, dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, questioned whether the faculty and administration should expect deans to handle class scheduling if disagreements arise between departments.

“If there are no Friday classes scheduled by a department, who?s going to bail people out? It?s not going to be the deans,” O?Leary said after asserting that the Senate?s plan “would not create significant displacement” for his college.

Professor Ted Lascher, who specializes in public policy, said that making deans the arbiters of when and where classes meet makes sense.

“Deans have more tools at their disposal, more carrots and sticks than department chairs to make deals,” Lascher said.

Gerth indicated that he is waiting to make a final decision until he speaks privately to the deans this week, since their oversight is key to insuring that departments schedule and support non prime time courses, even if enrollment is low at first.

“I expect a little more input from the deans,” Gerth said. “Then I?ll make my decision. We?ll meet soon (after Thanksgiving).”No one is certain what will come from that meeting. Communication Studies Chairman Val Smith sounded like a car salesman as he recalled his Nov. 13 presentation of the faculty?s plan to the deans.

“They had a lot of questions,” Smith told the Faculty Senate. “I asked them what it would take to get them to ?get behind the wheel and drive it off the lot? that afternoon, but they weren?t ready to go for that yet.”

Some students and faculty have suggested Gerth knew that his Oct. 1 mandate to eliminate Tuesday-Thursday 75-minute classes during prime time would stir up debate and move facility use to the top of the campus agenda. Gerth denies that he had any ulterior motives.

“I don?t know that I?m that Machiavellian,” Gerth said. “I think that all the deliberation has been good, but I don?t know that I have all that much Machiavellian skill.”