Cuts Proposed at CSUN in Travel, Salaries : Athletics: New budget for 1993-94 school year to aid in decision making about viability of football program.

Travel expenses and salaries would be trimmed in a new 1993-94 athletics budget Cal State Northridge officials have prepared at university President Blenda J. Wilson’s request.

Wilson asked for the budget to enable members of the community to advise her on whether the school should continue to field a football team. The budget request, Wilson said, was “not intended to prejudge our decision, but to provide an answer to the basic question most members of the community have asked, which is, ‘What would be the cost, and sources of revenue, for intercollegiate competition in the Division I-AA, all-sports conference?”

Wilson has scheduled a Feb. 22 community forum in which faculty, students and staff can comment on the budget proposal and the findings of a blue-ribbon committee commissioned by Wilson. The committee report, released Feb. 5, largely endorsed CSUN’s athletic program at the Division I level and recommended retaining football, but at the I-AA level.

However, Wilson said Feb. 5 that the 1993 football season is in jeopardy pending this discussion.

A decision on football is expected by March 1, the deadline imposed by a fledgling West Coast-based conference that plans to offer a variety of sports, as well as I-AA cost-containment football. Northridge is a candidate for that conference.

Athletic Director Bob Hiegert is eager to get an answer on football’s immediate future and he has expressed frustration with the lack of direction shown by Wilson.

“Every coach, staff person and athlete is here because they want to be involved in Division I athletics,” he said. “That’s the direction we should go. That has not come out loud and clear enough. There’s a voice of discontent and a challenge to the Division I decision and there should not be.

“When we’re sitting in a middle of a stream without a paddle and we’re pushed every which way with the waves, it is difficult to get to the side. And that was the intent of the blue-ribbon committee. Now (Wilson) has to say what direction we’re going in. Every booster group is waiting to hear what happens.”

Hiegert and athletic business manager Debby De Angelis drew up a budget that includes cuts of about $304,500 that represent 10% of the budget, in line with the cuts recommended by the California State University chancellor’s office.

The budget shows expected revenue of $1,108,500, an increase of $141,000 that De Angelis said will come from a concerted effort to solicit donations from alumni and corporate sponsors who are waiting for an answer on the future of the football program.

In terms of expenditures, coaching salaries and benefits were cut by $50,500 to $1,990,600. Operations, primarily travel expenses, show a $61,100 cut to $1,095,400. Scholarships are cut from $635,400 to $603,000, reflecting associated students funding cuts and the beginning of conference-based cost-containment reductions.

The salary cuts will come from reducing equipment manager positions and cutting just under $25,000 from the women’s volleyball coaching position. Former Coach Walt Ker made $70,272 because he had coached and taught at CSUN for 17 years. His replacement is expected to receive a starting salary of $45,996.

Travel expenses have been cut by careful scheduling. If there is a football team, for example, gate guarantees will bring in $122,000 (almost three times more than last season), yet there are no trips in ’93 that require air transportation. Last season, the football team flied to Central Oklahoma and Idaho.

The new budget calls for no sports to be dropped, primarily because the university has coaching salary and scholarship obligations through 1993. If the economy does not improve, one or two men’s sports could be dropped in 1994, Hiegert said.

No women’s sports are in jeopardy because CSUN offers the Division I minimum of seven women sports (volleyball, basketball, softball, swimming, tennis, cross-country and track and field).

Northridge fields nine men’s sports, two over the minimum (football, baseball, basketball, volleyball, soccer, golf, swimming, cross-country, and track and field).