Fullerton’s Cobb Forms Task Force to Study, Make Plans for Athletics

Jewel Plummer Cobb, Cal State Fullerton president, saying that the athletic department is in a “fiscal crisis,” Thursday announced the formation of a budget and planning task force and pledged to make athletics her priority during the next month.

Fullerton still is without an approved budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, and coaches and athletic department officials have been in uncomfortable suspense for a month since Cobb called in two outside consultants for “a management review.”

Cobb, presenting the consultants’ findings to the university’s Athletics Council, reaffirmed her recent rejection of a recommendation by the council that Fullerton meet its financial problems by dropping three sports--men’s gymnastics, women’s gymnastics and wrestling.

“While that would address the budget problem temporarily, it would be very negative with student-athletes, coaches, parents and the community and would build resistance for the future,” Cobb said.

San Jose State, like Fullerton a member of the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn., last week announced that it had dropped four sports--track and field, wrestling, men’s cross-country and women’s field hockey--for financial reasons.

Although athletic department officials earlier were faced with projections of a $200,000 deficit for the coming year, Athletic Director Ed Carroll said adjustments are being made that project a balanced budget.

The delay has left some Fullerton coaches, in the midst of the spring recruiting season, without a final scholarship figure for the coming year, but Carroll said they were provided with a figure of minimum assured scholarships.

Cobb, saying that campus support at Fullerton is insufficient, called for Carroll to increase his involvement with students and the community.

“Our campus support, while marvelously increasing, is not adequate to support a Division I program,” Cobb said. “ . . . A consensus must be reached by all on campus that the intercollegiate athletic program is important and that we must and will maintain its viability as a Division I program.”

A contribution of $700,000 from student organizations “could solve our budget problems,” Cobb said.

Student organizations contributed $400,000 this year.

Cobb also called for Carroll to exercise “more disciplined management” and “some belt-tightening” and said that the athletic department’s budget process must be brought in line with others at the university.

“This is a very significant point,” Cobb said. “We are now 14 years past the time we decided to be Division I. It’s an important time to look at ourselves.”

The 10-member task force will be charged with formulating a multiple-year plan and a statement of missions and goals, Cobb said. Among other things, the group also is to consider the role and impact of a planned on-campus sports complex, slated for completion in 1990.