BILL WOULD GUARANTEE INVOLVEMENT; COLLEGES COULDN'T CUT SPORTS WITHOUT HEARINGS.

Byline: Chris Branam Staff Writer

When Cal State Northridge cut four men's sports in 1997, supporters of the athletic department felt helpless and shut out of the decision-making process.

To ensure something similar doesn't happen again, state Sen. Cathie Wright, R-Simi Valley, has proposed Senate Bill 338. The bill would prevent a public college or university from cutting a sport without public notice. The Assembly is scheduled to vote on SB 338 later this summer; it has already passed the Senate 26-4 and will be heard by the Assembly Higher Education Committee on July 13.

``In any kind of a system, when you are dealing with young people who are developing life patterns, they have to have a certainty,'' said Wright, who got the state to pay $586,000 to bring the four CSUN men's sports - baseball, volleyball, golf and swimming) back in '97.

``OK, I bailed (CSUN) out. But I can't continue to do it in every area, and I can't continue to do it for the whole of the university system.''

SB 338 doesn't guarantee sports in the UC, CSU or community college systems won't be cut, but it forces school officials to include the community in the decision-making process through public hearings.

``We want the decisions to be made with public knowledge,'' said Lee Angela Reid, Wright's legislative assistant who wrote most of SB 338. ``We've had several debacles . . . Sometimes decisions are made in an arena where (the university officials) are not aware of a concern.

``We think the athletes deserve a fair shake.''

Opposition to SB 338 originally came from the CSU and the Community College League of California. They argued SB 338 would force a financially strapped school to operate in a deficit for a year, instead of clearing room in its budget immediately.

Coaches and athletes, however, are firmly behind the bill. Wright's office has received 200 letters of support, including personal notes from former USC baseball coach Rod Dedeaux and Jim Brownfield, the president of the California Coaches Association.

In response to the opposition, Reid added proposed amendments to SB 338. A one-year notice requirement was dropped, and community colleges also would be allowed to cut sports that don't have adequate participation. A sport could also be suspended.

Joanne Fortunato, the Commissioner of Athletics for the California Community College System, said the amendments made SB 338 ``more palatable.''

``I think (they) will greatly assist the community colleges in being realistic in what they are able to provide,'' Fortunato said.

Reid said often there are justifiable reasons for cutting a sport, but her research showed many instances in which programs were dropped without good reason.

``We've heard too many situations that a school was going to cut a program because the field was being reseeded,'' she said.

Jeff Campbell, CSUN's head men's volleyball coach, was an assistant at the school in '97. If SB 338 existed then, Campbell said, the program would have continued without losing key players who transferred.

``(SB 338) would prevent the knee-jerk reaction that we had when the four sports were cut in '97,'' Campbell said.

Said Reid: ``Had notice been posted ahead of time,'' she said, ``those programs could have continued. At Northridge, those were four successful programs. Why put people through that, and in particular the students?

``All we're asking is that notification be made. We're not trying to be unreasonable.''