Ponder’s Priorities Still in Same Order

Gerald Ponder is back on the Cal State Northridge football team, but his commitment to battle the school’s athletic establishment has not waned.

Ponder said this week that his “main goals are still the same.”

He wants Northridge athletes to be provided with a meal plan.

He wants Northridge athletes to be assisted with finding jobs.

He wants Northridge to join a program in which the school would provide former athletes with scholarship money until they earn their degrees.

He wants Northridge to implement programs to raise the graduation rates of athletes.

And, he wants to see greater ethnic and gender diversity within the Northridge athletic program.

“I’m still going to be fighting for those issues,” he said.

Ponder, one of the Matadors’ top defensive players, was reinstated by Coach Bob Burt on Tuesday.

Earlier, the senior from Corona had been “suspended indefinitely” by the coach for staying behind last week when the Matadors traveled to play Nevada Las Vegas.

Ponder reiterated that he boycotted Northridge’s game in Las Vegas to protest a suspension Burt levied against Vincent Johnson, a junior who plays next to Ponder in the Matador secondary.

Johnson, a cornerback, was suspended by Burt for cursing Bob Hiegert, the school’s athletic director, during a meeting with student leaders and top university administrators early last week.

Ponder and several football teammates debated whether to board the team bus to Las Vegas until the early hours last Friday morning, shortly before the Matadors departed.

“There were forces pulling on us from both sides,” he said.

Ponder and Johnson have been leaders in a movement to coax school officials into developing a meal plan for Northridge athletes, some of whom reportedly do not receive enough financial aid to eat on a regular basis. They led a football team boycott of practice 10 days ago intended to convince administrators to act quickly on their demands.

Hiegert ordered players back to the practice field the next day and warned them that they risked losing their scholarships.

Ponder said the players were “coerced” to abandon plans for a team boycott of the Las Vegas game because of Hiegert’s threats.

“All of that, plus what happened to Vinny. . . . Sooner or later I had to take a stand for something,” Ponder said. “It was a matter of principle.”

School officials say they are continuing to study the feasibility of instituting a meal plan.