Ambivalence Grows With Reinstatement

The announcement Monday that Cal State Northridge is reinstating through the 1998-99 school year the four men’s athletic programs dropped in June drew mixed reactions from people affected by the decision.

“I’m happy that we’re back,” said Jeff Campbell, Northridge’s first-year volleyball coach. “Our philosophy for this whole situation is that we have to hang on.”

Mike Preis, a sophomore striker on the soccer team, didn’t share Campbell’s enthusiasm.

“One more year, I don’t know what to say,” Preis said. “The point of the task force was, I believe, to save the sports forever or for never.”

Northridge cut baseball, soccer, swimming and volleyball on June 11 for financial reasons and to bring the school closer to compliance with gender-equity laws. The programs later were reinstated for one year.

A task force that spent three months looking into Northridge athletics concluded earlier this month that the school should save all the sports.

In giving the nod to continue the programs through the next school year, university President Blenda J. Wilson also pledged $5,000 of her own money to start a fund-raising drive for Northridge athletics.

But John Price, the former Northridge men’s volleyball coach and now women’s coach at Cal State Bakersfield, was not enthralled by Wilson’s pledge.

“I thought this should have happened three years ago,” Price said. “I felt all along that the university, headed by the president, should have gone to the community and said we need to raise money for men’s and women’s athletics.

“It sounds like she’s saying, ‘Here’s my $5,000,’ and then dumping [the responsibility] back on athletics. She should keep her $5,000 and try to get corporations to donate $5,000 each.”

Bradley Marsh, Northridge’s associated student body president, saw it differently.

“I think it takes a big person to say, ‘I was wrong,’ and try to correct it [with] her pocket book,” Marsh said.

Others, such as Mark Fitzpatrick, a sophomore defender on the soccer team, were relieved by the developments.

“I’m very happy because I didn’t want to go through the bother of trying to find a new team,” said Fitzpatrick, who attended the 11 task force meetings. “I like this area, I have a lot of good friends on the team and we have the chance to be a good team next year.”

Said Terri Preis, Mike’s mother: “I’d like to think this was a quick decision for the moment and [Wilson] will see that [the four sports] can be kept for longer than that when she digests the report,” Preis said. “I don’t think the community will stand for a one-year-at-a-time deal.”