Plan Backed to Raise Fees for CSUN Athletics

Coaches and athletes Tuesday voted separately and unanimously to back a plan calling for an increase in student fees needed to breath new life into Cal State Northridge’s beleaguered athletic program.

The Northridge Athletes Congress will recommend to student government leaders next week that the fee increase be placed on the university’s spring ballot.

Athletic Director Bob Hiegert said the referendum will call for students to pay an additional $6 for athletics beginning in the fall and gradually increase that support to $50 by the fall of 1998.

The revenue boost would allow the school to meet gender equity guidelines required by the Cal State University system’s settlement with the California chapter of the National Organization of Women. The school would add women’s soccer in 1995 and probably women’s golf in 1996, Hiegert said.

Should the referendum fail, Hiegert added, Northridge likely will be forced to eliminate one or more of its nine men’s sports.

Athletics currently receives approximately $400,000 from the school in activities funds, plus another $4 per student for scholarships.

Similar referendums recently have passed in Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal State Fullerton, Chico State and San Francisco State.

By the terms of the Cal State system’s settlement with N.O.W., Northridge must reach required levels of participation, scholarships and expenditures in its women’s sports by 1998.

The agreement calls for state universities to maintain a ratio of women athletes within 5% of the ratio of women enrolled at the school. For example, Northridge, which is approximately 54% female, would need at least 49% of its athletes to be female.

Also, the scholarship difference between males and females must not exceed 5% and the difference of expenditures must be within 10%.

Current ratios show that 65% of Matador athletes are male, 60% of the scholarship money is spent on males and 62% of total athletic expenditures are made on males.