CSUN Steps Up Efforts to Help Athletes in Need

A top Cal State Northridge administrator said Tuesday that the university is shifting gears in an effort to assist needy athletes.

Vice President Ronald R. Kopita said the school’s financial aid office will seek out student athletes who might qualify for additional grants or loans.

“We will be looking through all the files of students with financial aid,” Kopita said. “As we come across files where it appears additional assistance may be warranted and allowable, we will call those students in.”

President Blenda J. Wilson last week called for a review of the school’s financial aid office and assigned Vu Tran, a specialist in the field, to work with athletes choosing to appeal their awards.

Prompted by predictions that word of the offer would spread slowly, Kopita said administrators decided to aggressively seek athletes in need of financial assistance.

“We are committed to a quick response,” Kopita said. “Rather than wait, we decided not to leave anything to chance.”

Tran, an associate director in the financial aid office, said his first meeting with an athlete on Tuesday resulted in a “special grant.” The athlete, who is also considering a loan, was late with her original application, Tran said. He also made appointments with three other athletes.

Earlier in the day, student leader Rich Gitahi predicted athletes will be slow to respond to the school’s offer until they see results.

“If someone does go down and gets a lot of help, that’s going to motivate other people to go,” said Gitahi, a track and cross country runner who is president of the university’s Athletes Congress. “If someone gets an extra $500, word will get out.”

Gitahi predicted “only a small handful” of athletes will qualify for extra financial assistance. However, he added, “I’m hoping people will go in whether their package is fine or not for counseling on money management and budgeting.”

The football program has been the target of protests over the treatment of athletes, Gitahi said, because several current or former members of the team are active members of the Black Student Athletes Assn. and Black Student Union--groups pursuing the issue.

“Any time you have sports like football and track, you have a lot of minority athletes depending on financial aid just to attend the university, period,” Gitahi said. “They don’t have the financial resources at home to supplement what they get in aid.”

Boosting the university’s revenue base and fine-tuning the existing system of distributing financial aid should be priorities, Gitahi said, adding, “Developing stronger financial resources is the bottom-line goal.”