CSUN Making a Cut List, Public May Check It Soon

NORTHRIDGE — A list of possible cuts being considered within the Cal State Northridge athletic department could be made public by the end of the week, a school official said.

Ron Kopita, the Northridge dean of students, said that by Friday he and President Blenda J. Wilson might finalize a handful of budgetary scenarios that could result in the elimination of some athletic programs.

According to officials in the athletic department, Northridge is facing a budget deficit of about $700,000 in 1995-96. Northridge administrators have spent the past few weeks detailing a series of cuts and configurations in the department to offset the deficit.

Wilson on Monday was presented with a list of scenarios that Kopita characterized as ranging from “A to Z.”

“After we meet again, it’ll probably be more along the lines of A through E,” Kopita said. “We’d like to get this problem resolved.”

Kopita said that once Wilson pares the list of options, they will be made public and feedback will be sought. Wilson could make a final decision by early January.

Declining enrollment and the defeat of two referendums that would have hiked student fees to subsidize athletics are largely to blame for the looming deficit, officials said.