If Alexander Gonzalez gets his way, he will preside over a radically changed California State University, Sacramento.

By 2010, the CSUS president envisions 5,000 students living on campus, high-rise academic buildings, a gigantic greenbelt, a performing arts center and an 8,000-seat venue for sports and concerts.

Gonzalez is undaunted by a state budget crisis that already has zapped more than a billion dollars from public higher education. He says this dreary fiscal period is just the time to plan transforming the 57-year-old commuter school into "a destination campus for the West."

If he succeeds, Gonzalez, who is nearing his eighth month as the campus chief, would oversee one of the most dramatic makeovers of a CSU campus in recent Cal State history. With more than 28,000 students, CSUS is the sixth-largest of the system's 23 campuses.

The CSU board of trustees next week will consider whether to approve the blueprint that is just now circulating widely on campus.

"One way or another, we're going to create the standout, flagship campus we know Sac State can be," Gonzalez said Thursday in a speech to hundreds of faculty and staff. "We will survive this downturn ... and when we come out of it, we want to be ready."

The ambitious five-year plan -- which CSUS officials declined to put a price tag on -- would likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars and require generous private and corporate donations to complete.

Besides the financial obstacles, Gonzalez will no doubt confront some skepticism on his own campus, particularly among longtime faculty who say they've seen dozens of campus renovation plans arrive with fanfare and then quietly fade away.

"For more than 15 years, the biological sciences building has been slated for demolition and replacement, and it's never happened," said Bob Metcalf, a biological sciences professor who has been at CSUS for more than three decades.

Still, Metcalf said he was encouraged by the plan and said a new science building would be a huge boon for chemistry, biology and other science students.

"Our science students work in 50-year-old labs. They need to be able to work in labs that will be comparable to those they'll work in when they are out of school," he said.

The proposal calls for razing old dormitories and replacing them with modern apartments for 5,000 students, tearing down 18 aging buildings clustered at the campus center and putting up modern ones to house multiple academic departments, expanding and renovating the library and converting the mostly concrete center of campus into an end-to-end green space loaded with trees, lawn and fountains.

"We are redefining the entire look of the campus with the master plan," said Matthew Altier, associate vice president for facilities management. "Just about every single department on this campus ends up with new space, renovated space or expanded space."

One of Gonzalez's top priorities is to turn the commuter campus into a more traditional, residential one that supports university activities ranging from sports to performing arts. But large numbers of students who are older, raising families and working while they take courses could make that transition slow and difficult.

"It wouldn't have worked for me," said 23-year-old Jessica Karkoski, a senior. "I work a lot and only come to campus for my classes. This is a commuter campus. I don't see that changing."

Financing the plan likely will prove most challenging for Gonzalez.

State dollars for higher education are scarce, and it's uncertain whether voters will approve a $12 billion education bond measure in March that could help CSUS pay for some of its plans. Gonzalez has said he will launch an aggressive fund-raising campaign and is searching for a new vice president to oversee that effort.

Gonzalez, who called CSUS' history of fund raising "minimal," believes significant sources of untapped donors exist among the campus' 78,000 alumni living in the six-county Sacramento region.

Jim Chopyak, a professor of music and president of the CSUS faculty association, has doubts that many would-be donors will surface.

"I don't know how much money can be raised, and if we put up buildings with private money, I worry about the campus losing control of its own destiny," Chopyak said.

The ethnomusicologist also said he likes the bold plan but hopes that more immediate concerns aren't overlooked.

"Often there is a disconnect between an administration proposal and the hard reality we face in the classroom," Chopyak said. "Next week, when classes start, we will have students sitting on the floor in many classrooms. We have to deal with those issues."

Gonzalez and other campus leaders stress that the plan is just that, a plan.

Still, some faculty members couldn't help noticing that included in the blueprint is a move of Gonzalez's and other top administrative offices from Sacramento Hall to a renovated Eureka Hall in 2008-2009. Gonzalez spent roughly $265,000 to remodel his office in Sacramento Hall.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Earmarked for demolition
Buildings to be demolished and replaced by 2010, according to a new master plan for California State University, Sacramento:

2005/2006
* Brighton Hall: home to mathematics and statistics, and child development

* Humboldt Hall: home to biological sciences

2006/2007
* Alpine Hall: home to criminal justice

* Calaveras Hall: home to English

* Draper Hall: student housing

* Jenkins Hall: student housing

* Field house: would be replaced by an 8,000-seat event center, recreation center and student health clinic

* Weight training building: would be replaced by the 8,000-seat event center, recreation center and student health clinic

2007/2008
* Douglass Hall: classrooms and faculty offices

* El Dorado Hall: home to nursing

* Public Services building: campus public safety

* Riverfront Center: houses eateries, a copy center for students and center for graduate studies

2008/2009
* Sierra Hall: student housing

* Sutter Hall: student housing

2009/2010
* Santa Clara Hall: home to engineering

* Kadema Hall: home to visual arts

* Art Sculpture Lab

* Foley Hall: home to various offices, including campus parking services