EDITORIAL : WILSON'S LEGACY; CSUN PRESIDENT WILL BE KNOWN FOR REBUILDING THE CAMPUS AFTER THE NORTHRIDGE QUAKE, FAILURE TO SETTLE STADIUM DISPUTE.

IN the days after the January 1994 Northridge Earthquake, Blenda J. Wilson ran the day-to-day operations of the ravaged California State University, Northridge, campus from a recreational vehicle. Her various vice presidents were scattered in a tent city on campus.

Today, the university has completed nearly half of the $390 million recovery effort and in large part it owes a debt of gratitude to Wilson for getting this far.

It will have to finish the work without her, as Wilson is leaving CSUN in June to become the first president of the Nellie Mae Foundation, a Braintree, Mass.-based non-profit organization that provides federal and private loans to students.

During her seven-year tenure, the San Fernando Valley university has made taken some huge strides toward becoming an academic and athletic destination for Southern California students.

Apart from her single-minded focus to resume classes in more than 300 trailers just four weeks after the devastating earthquake, Wilson guided development of the North Campus after years of failure. Under the deal she helped broker, Alfred Mann will move his MiniMed Inc. business to the campus. That will bring the school a long-term stream of revenue and jobs to the surrounding community.

Wilson also is credited with changing the way the campus designs its programs to better serve its 27,000 students and overseeing the football team's leap to the Division I-AA Big Sky Conference, the women's basketball team's Cinderella season despite the arrest of its coach on drug charges and finding a way to keep the baseball team and men's soccer team afloat after trying to get rid of them.

That said, there also were areas where events seemed to run out of Wilson's control and hit her in the face. Those events involved some university financial operations and the athletic program in general.

Allowing four men's sports - including the successful baseball and soccer programs - to be killed last year is the prime example and it's been costly to CSUN although she recovered from the fumble and reversed course.

Nine high-ranking officials or head coaches have quit since last June. Only one of those posts have been filled. Leaving vacancies at such jobs as vice president of student affairs, athletic director, assistant athletic director and women's basketball coach.

Wilson's departure also leaves important unfinished business: a decision on where to build a football stadium and how big to build it.

Residents of nearby neighborhoods are fighting CSUN's plans ferociously and any attempt by Wilson to close the door on this issue before leaving is certain to explode into an angry and bitter fight.

As with the failed attempt to build a mall on a the North Campus, Wilson never got the community to support her plan to build the stadium on campus. We reluctantly recommend that she pass on a decision and allow her successor to live or die by the decision.

In light of the stumbles and community relations pitfalls, Wilson proved that she could respond to public outcry and deal with issues diplomatically and fairly.

We wish Wilson well in her new job, and urge CSU Chancellor Charles Reed to move swifty in finding a top-notch administrator with big-time college experience to replace her.

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PHOTO no caption (CSUN`s Blenda Wilson)