Programs Get Ready for Another Round of Budget Cuts

Cal State Fullerton men’s basketball Coach Brad Holland has been told the program’s budget probably will be trimmed about $45,000 next season, according to university sources.

Other coaches, sources say, have been told to expect cuts proportionate to those of the men’s basketball program. But in keeping with Fullerton President Milton Gordon’s wishes, sources say, money has been set aside in each of the athletic department’s working budgets for a football coach to be hired Jan. 1, 1994.

Springtime means budget time at the university level and, although the working budget for next year is still written in erasable ink pending final mandates from the state and Gordon, the Fullerton athletic department has scheduled a staff meeting for this morning, during which coaches and administrators will be apprised of another dire financial picture.

“It’s very gloom and doom around here,” one coach said.

Sources say the Fullerton athletic department probably will be hit with a $196,306 reduction in state money for next year’s budget, based on what is shaping up as a 10% campus-wide budget slashing.

Combined with the $515,833 permanent reduction from the state affecting this year’s budget, the Fullerton athletic department is looking at a loss of $712,139 in two years--a 29% overall reduction from the $2,482,893 originally appropriated to the department from the state at the beginning of this fiscal year.

The cuts will be made despite the fact that, by dropping football for 1993, Fullerton’s operating budget will be reduced by an estimated $1.2 million, including about $420,000 in coaches’ salaries.

The new wave of cuts likely will be made up by a combination of slashing money from individual sports and by eliminating positions within the department, according to Bill Shumard, Fullerton’s athletic director.

Decisions already have been made, according to Shumard, not to replace trainer Jerry Lloyd, who is retiring because of physical problems, and a position vacated last month by assistant sports information director Cindy Walton, who left for a job with the American Volleyball Coaches’ Assn. in Colorado.

“We’ll consolidate and shift things around,” Shumard said. “We’ll use less money for graduate assistant-type helpers.”

It is also possible that other positions will be eliminated.

One thing that has not been eliminated, despite budget blood-letting, is the pledge to bring football back in 1994 at the Division I-AA level.

Despite the budget juggling, sources say the two or three working budgets each include the hiring of a football coach by Jan. 1, 1994. It is said that money for the football coach already has been set aside--half a year’s salary, about $35,000, for next year.

Although there still is no target date on when the budget will be finished, Shumard will make the staff aware today of the likely cuts because it is almost impossible for a university to follow the state’s timetable. Last year’s state budget proceedings dragged into late summer. Even if that’s the case this year, Fullerton coaches need a working budget for next year so they can sign scholarship forms and recruit.

“If we don’t have a working idea, it makes it hard to recruit,” one coach said. “We’re kind of gridlocked.”

In a week of cold reality, the importance of Saturday’s athletic department auction cannot be underestimated, Shumard said.

And to give the auction a boost, Fullerton athletic officials have done some recruiting of their own: The keynote speaker of Saturday’s auction, titled “A Bid of Excitement,” is Indiana basketball Coach Bob Knight.

The auction, scheduled to begin 6 p.m. Saturday in the Titan Pavilion on campus, starts the Titan Athletic Foundation’s fund drive.

“(The cuts) magnify the need for us to raise revenue from outside sources,” Shumard said. “We’re looking at what will easily be the single-most successful fund-raising event in the university’s history.”

Shumard said he was told that last year’s auction, which netted about $47,000, was the biggest university fund-raiser ever. This year’s goal, according Larry Zucker, Titan Athletic Foundation executive director, is $100,000.

There will be a live and a silent auction, with bidding on items such as a ride on the Goodyear blimp, a round trip for two anywhere on American Airlines, a Hawaiian vacation, golf packages, a night as a Laker ballboy or ballgirl, lunch with John Wooden, a night at a hockey game with Kings owner Bruce McNall and four luxury box tickets to a Mighty Ducks game.

Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children this week, and $15 at the door. Zucker said a sellout is expected.

Well, it is foot ball, isn’t it?

Although the sign out front reads “Titan Football House”, Mistri has moved his operations into the building, as has the Salsa.

And there are no plans to change to sign.

“As far as I’m concerned, the sign can stay there as long as it wants,” Mistri said. “It’s correct.”

Titan Notes

The Fullerton baseball team, ranked eighth nationally by Baseball America and seventh by Collegiate Baseball, is at UCLA (24th in Collegiate Baseball, 21st in Baseball America) Wednesday and then travels to Tucson, Ariz., for a three-game series with Arizona (12th in Collegiate Baseball and ninth Baseball America) this weekend. Outfielder Dante Powell, listed this week by Baseball America as the No. 1 college prospect for major league baseball’s June draft, went five for 11 with three doubles, two homers, nine runs batted in and seven runs scored as the Titans got back on track last week with victories over USC, Chapman and Grand Canyon . . . Maryalyce Jeremiah, senior women’s administrator, said she would like to return to coaching women’s basketball and has spoken with officials at Fresno State, where there is an opening . . . A few ex-Titan football players are still scrambling. Michael Peters, a junior running back, transferred to Illinois State . . . Former Fullerton football Coach Gene Murphy, on his continuing exploits as a travel agent: “Working for a commission is like playing LSU, Florida and Georgia back-to-back.”