Task Force Chairman Unveils Plan

NORTHRIDGE — Task force Chairman Keith Richman submitted Monday a working budget for the 1998-99 school year to the Cal State Northridge Task Force on Intercollegiate Athletics that was meant to address budget and gender-quity problems.

Richman’s proposed budget would maintain the schools’ existing sports--including the four men’s sports the university tried to cut--and meet CAL-NOW gender requirements.

“This budget is meant to stabilize the program,” Richman said.

The proprosed budget increases the university’s general athletic department funding by $400,000, increases corporate funding for athletics by $100,000 and increases student-athletic fees by $5 per student to raise an additional $280,000 each semester.

“This budget asks all parties to step up to the plate,” task force member William P. Jennings said.

Richman’s proposal would produce a surplus of $360,000, according to Jennings, which could be used to cover any contingencies.

Under the plan, scholarships would be reduced from 168 to 163. Women would receive 52.8% of the scholarships and 51.9% of the overall budget of $6.16 million--a $437,000 drop from the current budget.

The proposed budget was only eight scholarships fewer than a “conversative hit” budget submitted earlier by Northridge coaches.

“The scholarship numbers and participation numbers are very close [between the two proposed budgets],” Jennings said. “I’m very pleased that what we’ve drawn up and what the coaches have drawn up is in the same ballpark.”

Not everyone on the committee agreed with the budget’s specifics.

“This is just a Band-Aid. It isn’t going to do anything,” committee member and student Jon Hatemi said. “It’s not going to make CSUN athletics any better. It’s helping one sport to hurt another, which you said you weren’t going to do.”

Committee member Dr. James Sefton noted that the budget proposal reduces football scholarships from 45 to 40, which runs counter to the school’s Big Sky Conference membership contract that calls for Northridge to eventually reach 63.

Richman asked that suggestions on the budget and the language for the preliminary report be submitted by the next meeting Monday.