Investigators Clear, Admonish CSF : Jurisprudence: Panel finds no evidence of discrimination against 15 former Titan football players. School told be more sensitive to their needs.

A human relations panel investigating complaints of 15 former Cal State Fullerton football players found no evidence of discriminatory treatment, the school announced Friday.

But a summary of the 11-member panel’s findings said the school needed to be more sensitive to student-athletes’ needs, particularly when athletic programs are discontinued.

The report said charges of racial or ethnic discrimination were “not supported by the evidence” but that football players suffered because of a lack of communication and the loss of direction and support when football was dropped after the 1992 season.

“I’m certainly not surprised,” said Bill Shumard, who announced last week that he will resign as Titan athletic director effective May 31. “I expected good results.

“I’m very appreciative of the (panel’s) work. Obviously, it’s an inexact science when you have to drop a sport, a learning curve. Hopefully, we’ll all learn from this.”

But Matt Pearson, a former Titan linebacker from Oxnard, said the findings of the panel weren’t valid because of the limitations of the inquiry.

“That group never had the power to investigate anything,” he said. “They only had the power to hear our side of the story and their side of the story. They couldn’t investigate the charges and substantiate them.”

The report said it found no evidence to support charges that football players were subjected to racial harassment by members of the athletic department or provided with inadequate treatment for injuries after the program was dropped.

But, Pearson said, “When a man says something in front of 50 witnesses, that’s a fact.”

The report also said communication problems were mostly responsible for continuing disputes over financial aid between the players and the school.

Pearson said the players now intend to take the matter to court.

“The bottom line is we’re being denied financial aid we’re entitled to,” he said.

To address the problems the panel said it discovered, the report recommended development of:

* A written plan to help students from a discontinued program make the transition.

* A handbook for student-athletes.

* A coaches manual or checklist involving issues including recruiting, contracts, scholarships, deadlines and academic progress.

* Multicultural awareness and communication training for athletic department personnel.

* A system in which student-athletes are encouraged to become more involved with the university and all its resources rather than just the athletic department.