25-Year Feud Casts Pall on CSUN Sports : Athletics: Black students renew protest that players are underpaid and underappreciated.

Facing an opponent of superior size and strength, the underdogs pulled one of the oldest tricks in the book: They staged a protest.

And so began another season in the long-running rivalry between the Black Student Union and the Cal State Northridge athletic department, an unfinished grudge match that began 25 years ago over the treatment of black athletes.

Black student leaders, during a game against Sonoma State three weeks ago, renewed their protests, waving signs charging that CSUN athletes are underpaid, underfed and unappreciated.

Disgruntled football players staged a successful boycott of practice two weeks ago. Then BSU members raised the ante by calling for a game strike, threatening to wreck the school’s first season in the NCAA big leagues and jeopardizing tens of thousands of dollars in gate receipts.

CSUN officials hit back, threatening to boot players from the team and drop the football program altogether, a prospect that sent all but a handful of team members off the soapbox and back onto the playing field.

But the issues remain. The black student leaders are demanding the resignation of Athletic Director Bob Hiegert and more grant money for players.

In response, university officials have promised to study the operation of the financial aid office but remain convinced that the problem is being exaggerated by a small group of publicity-hungry students. And they said their support remains strong for Hiegert.

So far, the back and forth has yielded--in the vernacular of the game--three yards and a cloud of dust.

What is clear is that between the departure of former CSUN President James Cleary and the arrival of current president Blenda J. Wilson in the fall of 1992, several longstanding demands by the group--studied in three separate reports--were sidelined.

The debate also raises the question of whether the cash-strapped university can afford its $3.8-million athletics program, if some of its most valued players are, as they contend, going hungry because they have run out of money.

“Part of the costs of running an athletic program is treating student athletes relatively well,” said Morton Schapiro, chairman of the economics department at USC and author of the book “Keeping College Affordable.”

Added Schapiro: “The question is whether you can run these programs on a shoestring and still have these high expectations . . . and if you can’t, you can’t.”

Some faculty members last year argued against spending campus funds on athletics when state budget shortages were forcing the school to cancel hundreds of academic classes and lay off part-time instructors.

CSUN President Wilson said she decided in favor of keeping sports “to provide an intercollegiate athletic experience that is not very costly.”

Black athletes, strong supporters of that decision last year, say African-American students perform a disproportionate share of the work in athletics at the school and therefore deserve special consideration. They make up about 28% of the 420 or so athletes on school teams, even though they comprise less than 7% of CSUN’s total enrollment.

And like many sophisticated workers, they know how to get the attention of management.

“Many of the players feel they are earning the university money and the idea is that if they don’t play, the university doesn’t get the money and they will be forced to negotiate,” said Steven Parker, president of CSUN’s Associated Students.

Black activists have for years demanded the school improve the graduation rate of student athletes--which has been about 9% for black athletes and 33% for white athletes. BSU leaders have also asked for a review of the school’s financial aid office to make it easier for students to apply, the hiring of more minority coaches and meals to be provided to athletes during their season.

Finally, they have called for the resignation of Hiegert for allegedly turning his back on racist behavior in the athletic department.

In one widely cited example, a CSUN coach reportedly told one of his black players “either you play better or go back home and pick watermelons.” Football players pointed out that generally white and black players rode in separate buses.

In the spring and summer of 1992, a lengthy ad hoc committee report, followed by a rebuttal by the athletic department and a final assessment by the school’s athletic oversight committee confirmed many of the student complaints.

Wilson, acknowledging the problem after arriving last year, authorized the hiring of a full-time academic adviser for athletes. Three African-American football coaches were hired and all coaches were required to attend seminars on dealing with other races and ethnicities.

But what remains to be settled, say black student leaders, are issues of money and respect, which they don’t feel they get from Hiegert.

Football players last year received an average grant of $2,613. For some, it is plenty. But others say they should be getting more, in part because the demands of the sport preclude them from holding a part-time job and because they are performing a service for the campus.

Many black athletes say they are reluctant to take out student loans, considering the overwhelming odds against leaving CSUN with a college degree.

“We’re not going to sit back on this,” said Leslie Small, a graduate student of psychology and president of the school’s BSU chapter. “We want a change.”

The student leaders say the school should either step up fund-raising efforts or set aside more money for players and less for equipment and staff salaries.

Campus administrators have begun a study to see if NCAA rules will allow them to provide meals to athletes, and if procedures in the campus financial aid office can be changed to better serve students.

But Wilson said she does not believe the financial troubles raised by the BSU are widespread. Only eight athletes this past week responded to offers to review their financial aid package. All received additional payments of at least $400.

“That tells me the starving athlete issue is very isolated and not systemic,” Wilson said.

Ron Kopita, CSUN vice president for student affairs, said at least one of the student athletes complaining spent his grant money on a car. Regardless, he said, the school cannot afford the estimated $80,000 it would cost to feed all its athletes.

Athletics is “already operating on a shoestring,” he said. The campus in a decision last year agreed to maintain competitive athletics, with the knowledge that it would probably never have the money to be a powerhouse on the level of schools such as USC, UCLA, Notre Dame or the University of Michigan.

As a result, CSUN draws few athletes with the potential to compete professionally.

Wilson, who is African-American, believes the school has addressed the most pressing issues raised by past studies of the athletic department by hiring the academic adviser and requiring coaches to attend sensitivity training.

Others disagree.

“This is a problem we’ve had last year and the year before that and the year before that,” said Selase Williams, chairman of the school’s Pan-African Studies Department. “ . . . I think the school is trying to get a grip on the financial aspect, but it is the human element that is holding the athlete’s attention. Dealing with the leadership and attitudes of the staff in the athletic department is a much more difficult problem.”

Small and other students point out that the latest round of complaints by black players comes almost exactly 25 years after similar protests resulted in 34 administrators and employees being taken hostage in a four-hour takeover of the school’s administration building by BSU members.

While no one is predicting similar acts, there remains frustration that the issue is still unresolved.

“We have seen results from what we are doing and that is what keeps us going,” said Darius Riggins, 23, a junior studying civil engineering and a BSU member. “Looking back at Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, if they hadn’t done what they did, we wouldn’t be where we are.”

Athletic Director Hiegert, the target of much of the anger of the black student leaders, said he worked in the school cafeteria and at a small market while attending CSUN as a student athlete during the early 1960s. And it was not so easy for him, either.

“I worked during my four years here and only got a scholarship my last year; they paid for tuition,” said Hiegert.

He added, “Students make the choice about coming to the institution; no one is forcing them to stay in a sport.”

Cliff Sjogren, who retired this fall as dean of admissions for USC, said so much emphasis has been placed on athletic performance that the true mission of schools--providing an education--sometimes becomes obscured.

“Things have gotten completely out of hand with the pressure on these kids,” said Sjogren, who also spent nearly 25 years at the University of Michigan.

“Athletic scholarship is such an oxymoron. Athletics has nothing to do with scholarship.”