CS Northridge Still Searching for an Answer : College football: Administrators and Athletes Congress meet in wake of boycott to discuss aid and to determine if a training table is a viable solution.

It is a question apparently lacking a definitive answer.

Are athletes at Cal State Northridge being treated as well as is financially feasible?

At the request of Northridge President Blenda J. Wilson and Vice President Ronald R. Kopita, representatives from the school’s athletic teams met Thursday with top school administrators to discuss the issue.

The meeting “went well,” according to Rich Gitahi, a cross-country and track runner who is president of the Northridge Athletes Congress.

“I think everybody understands that a commitment is there and the administration is trying,” Gitahi said. However, there are, he added, “a few who don’t think (the school) is trying as hard as (it) should.”

Wilson and Kopita were not available for comment, but Gitahi said both seemed to be pleased with the discussion and exchange of ideas. The Athletes Congress consists of two elected representatives from the school’s football team and one from each of the athletic program’s 17 other sports.

Attention was called Monday to the hardship of some Northridge athletes when members of the school’s football team boycotted practice to protest the lack of a meal plan or meal-per-day “training table.”

Leaders of the boycott said need-based financial aid packages and partial scholarships are not enough to keep some football players from having to chose between eating and paying the rent.

“What athletes are trying to determine is, is a training table the best solution?” Gitahi said. “Some people say yes, others say no.”

The football team’s one-day boycott was not discussed, Gitahi said.

Gitahi said the process by which Northridge students are granted financial aid is being studied. He said other universities in the Cal State system consider applicants’ “file complete” when their applications are completed.

At Northridge, he said, applicants lose “file complete” status if there are questions with their paperwork.

Since financial aid funds are limited, some Northridge students lose out before they can refile a claim. At other schools, Gitahi said, grants are simply held until the application is complete.