BSU Gives Northridge Ultimatum : Racism: Black-student group vows to boycott school sporting events and businesses unless athletic director resigns.

The president of the Black Student Union at Cal State Northridge said Thursday she would call for a boycott of all school sporting events and school businesses unless Athletic Director Bob Hiegert resigns in the wake of a task-force report on racism within the athletic program.

Karen Brannon, head of the BSU, also blasted university President James W. Cleary for his reaction to the report, saying he either “didn’t read the report or he’s lying.”

Should the university fail to meet the BSU’s demand for Hiegert’s resignation, along with trying to implement all of the report’s recommendations, Brannon said she will call for membership of the BSU--estimated at 2,000--to begin the boycott.

“If the demands are not met, if we are not taken seriously, I will try to initiate the boycott,” she said. “But I expect Bob Hiegert to resign. He is not qualified to run the department. He takes credit when his teams win championships. Now he has to take the blame when the department fails. I expect him to resign. We are very serious about this.”

Brannon said the 68-page report, released to the news media last Friday, “substantiated all issues raised” by the BSU, including inadequate academic advisement for student-athletes, a need for black coaches and academic advisers, a lack of financial support for athletes, and a graduation rate of only 9.2% for the school’s black athletes, less than one-third the rate for CSUN’s white athletes.

At the core of the problems, Brannon said during a campus news conference, is Hiegert.

“With a graduation rate of less than 10% for black athletes, he will not even admit there is a problem,” Brannon said.

Hiegert was unavailable for comment. He left town earlier in the day to accompany the school’s baseball team to Wichita, Kan., for an NCAA regional tournament.

But Brannon saved her strongest words for Cleary, the president who announced last year that he would resign in June, ending his 23-year tenure as the school’s leader. In response to the report, Cleary has voiced strong support for Hiegert, saying the report failed to mention a single example of racism by Hiegert.

Brannon said the entire report, including the dismal graduation rate for student-athletes and the fact that Hiegert has never in his 14-year stint as athletic director hired a full-time, black head coach, showed a racist attitude.

“I happen to think President Cleary is flat-out wrong to deduce that the athletic department shows no racism, according to the report,” Brannon said. “The report is clear that Bob Hiegert has run a racist department. The committee didn’t come out and say ‘Bob Hiegert is a racist,’ but it clearly states that the department run by Bob Hiegert has great problems in that area.

“Either President Cleary didn’t read the report, or he’s lying.”

In a written statement released by Cleary’s office Thursday, the president said: “It appears that Karen and I may be interpreting portions of the report differently, and certainly, we all are entitled to our opinions. . . . I hope we can move past this stage and get to the task of implementing the report’s recommendations as soon as possible.”

Brannon said she will try to arrange a summer meeting with the school’s newly appointed president, Blenda J. Wilson, who was named Tuesday to replace Cleary. Wilson becomes the first black president, and the first woman president, in the school’s 34-year history.

“I plan to speak to her about all of these issues,” Brannon said, “to see that all of our demands come to pass. But I still expect Bob Hiegert to resign immediately.”

Also speaking at the conference was Patrick Johnson, head of the school’s Black Student-Athletes Assn. He said problems at CSUN affect all of the estimated 350 student-athletes. Blacks, he said, make up the majority of that group.

“All athletes are struggling here,” he said. “But we are the ones who have brought the problems to the surface. Many white athlete friends have told me they’re behind us 100%.

“The problem, really, is a total insensitivity to the needs of the athletes here.”