Hill Instructed to Take a Vacation : SDSU AD Gets Two Weeks Off Under Orders of President

San Diego State Athletic Director Mary Alice Hill has been instructed by university president Thomas Day to immediately take a two-week vacation, according to Bill Finley, the SDSU assistant athletic director for public relations.

This latest action comes on the heels of a turmoil-filled, five-day period during which Hill fired three members of her athletic department and severed a tie with Mike Urbano’s Regions West marketing company Wednesday, according to a source in the athletic department. Urbano had been SDSU’s athletic department promotions director before leaving two years ago.

Since Wednesday, the three fired employees--assistant athletic directors Gabe Ortiz (business) and Steve Cushman (director of the Aztec Foundation) and Muriel Kulikowski, Hill’s administrative assistant--have been reinstated, the source said. Cushman and Ortiz were at work Friday and Kulikowski is free to return to work. The contract with Regions West has not been severed.

As has been their policy since Friday, Hill and members of the athletic and academic departments have declined to talk to the press. If they comment at all, they refer all questions to Day, who has not been available for comment.

“Dr. Day has no comment or statement scheduled at this point,” Finley said. “He considers it to be a delicate personnel matter. He wants to be sure he does the best thing for all concerned. Once he is assured he has done that, a statement and explanation will be forthcoming.”

The second part of the two-fold controversy at SDSU concerns the admittance of five freshmen basketball recruits.

Coach Smokey Gaines and SDSU Vice-President for Student Affairs Dan Nowak are scheduled to discuss the matter at a meeting this morning. The academic records of some of the players are still incomplete, so today’s meeting is not expected to be conclusive.

All of the recruits have at least a 2.0 high school grade-point average, and thereby qualify under NCAA standards. However, at SDSU, the recruits are considered “special admissions” because they do not meet the school’s higher admissions requirements.

If the academic office cuts back on special admissions for athletes this year, all or some of the five recruits may not be admitted to the university.