Northridge Praises Fact-Finding Panel

A commission appointed to study the athletics program at Cal State Northridge earned the praise of school officials for its comprehensive approach during an exhaustive, two-day, fact-finding visit to the campus.

Ronald Kopita, vice president of student affairs at Northridge, said Tuesday the six-member panel collected “reams of information from every constituent group one could ever try to pull together.”

The commission concluded its on-site evaluation Tuesday by conducting private interviews with Northridge athletes, coaches and athletics program support staff.

The commission also interviewed school fund-raisers, the University Budget Advisory Board, an executive committee of academic department chairmen, the executive committee of the Faculty Academic Senate, student leaders, trustees of the Northridge Foundation and the co-chairman of the Athletic Oversight Advisory Board.

The commission, chaired by Ira Michael Heyman, former chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, carried out a similarly busy schedule Monday when it began its tour of the campus.

“I feel very confident that they leave the campus today with as much information as a group could possibly glean from . . . two days of interviews,” Kopita said.

Blenda J. Wilson, Northridge’s first-year president, requested an assessment of the athletics program’s current status and recommendations for its future when she appointed the commission last month.

The panel’s report is due by the end of January.

“They’re putting in their hours and getting quite a bit of information,” said Bob Hiegert, Northridge athletic director.