CSUN Must Find the Money for Its Athletics Facilities

If a university such as Cal State Northridge is to best prepare students for an increasingly complicated and fast-changing world, there’s no doubt the job requires a combination of talented and committed faculty members, top-notch classrooms and support facilities, and the financial support of the community.

CSUN has always had a broad array of faculty members whose extraordinary service to our students and the community is like the proverbial hidden light, shining brightly but often not fully seen. And as CSUN approaches the completion of $400 million in restoration work from the 1994 Northridge earthquake, our academic and related facilities will be some of the most modern among U.S. universities.

However, not all of CSUN’s needs and those of our students have been adequately addressed or funded. One example: Just as our students need modern facilities for their academic pursuits, so do they need and deserve quality athletic and other extracurricular program support. And particularly in the area of athletic facilities, the university must rely primarily on the financial support of its students and its community, rather than on state funding.

Thus it was a great disappointment to me and our student leaders when the university’s Associated Students (student government) organization recently concluded that it could not proceed with a planned mid-November student referendum to fund various campus recreation and athletic facilities, despite months of very diligent planning.

The referendum would have asked CSUN students to approve ultimately a $90-a-year student fee increase to build a new student recreation center, a new university football / soccer stadium, a new baseball stadium on the CSUN campus and other smaller projects--totaling about $30 million. (The measure did not proceed because of difficulties in resolving details of how those projects could have been financed had students approved the fee increase.)

I strongly supported the efforts of student leaders to put the measure before our students, and I certainly am disappointed that the entire student body did not get a chance to vote on the referendum. Still, I join with our student leaders in believing that these are important facilities for the future of the university. Thus CSUN must find the funding necessary to proceed with these projects.

Recently, some have mistakenly portrayed the outcome of the student referendum as perhaps the end of efforts to upgrade the university’s athletic facilities. That simply is not correct. Looking ahead, the university will continue to work with its student leaders to help them achieve their goals and our campus goals. CSUN also will continue working to obtain the important community financial support that must be a part of funding university athletic facilities.

Just as we strive for excellence in academics and service to the community, CSUN also is committed to operating a first-class athletics program for students. As recent headlines have recounted, we are continuing to explore possible athletic conference affiliations that would be in the university’s best interests. Whatever the outcome, the university will move ahead by maintaining all of the 20 sports that are currently offered here.

As a sign of that commitment to athletics, the university is not just waiting for future fund-raising efforts to bear fruit. We are moving ahead with interim initiatives. Earlier this year, we allocated funds to develop a new, modern strength-training facility for student athletes in the Kinesiology Building. That project will get underway soon. We also hope to identify funds during this school year to accomplish upgrades to our existing campus baseball field. But there remains much, much more to be done.

The university’s student government leaders deserve our support and appreciation for helping move the campus toward achieving its recreation and athletic facility goals. No one should view the recent referendum discussion as the end of a campaign. Rather, the effort expended and information learned during this endeavor constitute the beginning of the important process that lies ahead. We still must garner the necessary student and community financial support to provide our students the athletic and recreational facilities they need and deserve.