EDITORIAL : FAILURE OF LEADERSHIP CSUN SPORTS FIASCO REFLECTS BADLY AT THE TOP.

DON'T blame the boys and girls for the announced cuts in intercollegiate sports at California State University, Northridge.

Blame the men and women who should have kept it from reaching this absurd point - the university's decision Wednesday to eliminate its most acclaimed men's varsity teams.

It would be easy, and misleading, to pin the blame on CSUN's need for gender equity under a legal agreement that compels the university to equalize male and female participation in athletics. That's only one factor, a smaller one, in this fiasco.

A much larger culprit is the athletic department's budget deficit. CSUN is spending heavily for major development of its football program, which it hopes will bring it national recognition.

Even without pressure for gender equity, the budget deficit would force spending cuts or other dramatic steps. That indicates shortcomings on the part of officials, both present and past, who let the situation deteriorate so badly that CSUN is dropping four men's varsity programs that epitomize Southern California and the sun-drenched San Fernando Valley:

The baseball program, which in its distinguished 39-year history has won two national championships, and produced 38 All-Americans, more than 100 professional players and innumerable other honors.

Volleyball, with CSUN teams ranked in the top 15 nationally for 12 consecutive seasons, reaching the finals of the NCAA championship in 1993.

Soccer, which is a bewildering cutback in view of the sport's enormous appeal among the diverse ethnic groups in the Valley and Los Angeles; also, in 1987 and '88 the soccer team finished second in the NCAA Division II national championships.

The swimming and diving program, which had powerhouse teams (never finishing below ninth place nationally) until CSUN hitched its wagon to a star in 1990-91 and switched from Division II to Division I competition.

That decision by the university - stepping up to the big time and Division I - is a huge part of the problem.

To compete in the bigger arena, CSUN wants to be in the Big Sky Conference, which requires every conference member to field a football team. That's what's breaking the budget at Northridge.

To continue chasing its big-time dreams while also achieving gender parity, CSUN is doing an unbelievable cop-out - wiping out highly successful men's sports the Big Sky Conference doesn't require.

As unfortunate as that is, even sadder is the way CSUN officials have reached this point. It's as if the blind are leading the blindsided.

University officials consulted with a community advisory board before announcing the decision, but they did not consult with the public at large. They failed to call a public meeting for the university's numerous, vocal fans and friends throughout the Valley and region to comment on the problem and rally support for a better solution.

Paul Bubb, CSUN athletic director, sat back and waited to see whether anyone contacted him with offers of personal or corporate funds. Instead of taking action, he waited for someone else to show leadership.

CSUN President Blenda J. Wilson failed to step up and show leadership. On Wednesday, she was out of town on other business.

Ronald Kopita, CSUN vice president for student affairs, said Wednesday that the university is accountable to its students and faculty regarding intercollegiate athletics. The public comes in a distant last in his mind.

Yet it's the public that finances CSUN and it's the public in a vast area that counts on CSUN as a critically important center of its intellectual and cultural life and as place of opportunity for educational advancement.

The disregard of the public illustrates the mind-set that got CSUN into this morass, and the downward spiral that threatens CSUN from here on.

CSUN leaders think their sports teams have fair-weather fans. That's why they didn't even reach out to the community to get the sports program through this current storm.

We believe they're wrong.

And what's worse, the way they're treating the university's most-popular sports programs could well guarantee that fair-weather fans are all they'll ever have.

Blenda, call home

Leaving her subordinates to handle crisis management, Cal State Northridge President Blenda J. Wilson was out of town when the university announced highly unpopular cuts in intercollegiate sports.

Spokesmen said Wilson was away on university business and was not available to answer questions this week - even on the telephone - and probably not next week, either.

We suggest that President Wilson make herself available immediately to help the community understand this decision and also to gain a deeper sense of the public reaction to it.