State Unhappy About Funding SDSU’s Track

One year ago, an aged and somewhat weathered Choc Sportsman Track at San Diego State University received a face lift, compliments of the state of California.

The improvements, featuring a state-of-the-art Mondo surface--the same kind that will be used at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona--and new surfaces for all jumping and throwing areas, cost $225,000 and was paid for by the state university system.

As of Tuesday, after the suspension of the men’s and women’s track programs at SDSU, the state-of-the-art track no longer has a primary user, and the state is not amused.

The action hardly excited the people at the CSU’s Office of the Chancellor in Long Beach, who determine allocations from appropriations from the state government.

“I wish we hadn’t given them the money a year ago,” said Plant Operations Services Chief Ted Binkley, who worked closely with SDSU on their proposal made two years ago.

“Look at it this way. I’m not going to say we’re bitter. The allocation at the time was a proper one. It’s unfortunate they had to do away with the track program. If we’d known it would have been cancelled, we would not have allocated the money.”

Two years ago, San Jose State was to have received a similar allocation for track improvements, but when the university dropped the track program, the proposal was denied.

Binkley explained that the $225,000 used for improvements to SDSU’s track were taken from a $644,000 budget that had originally included other improvement projects at SDSU, such as repairing an eroded roadside bank, renovating seven steam vaults, replacing steam lines and reparing mechanical controls.

Those projects, he said, “were either not done, or not done in total.”

SDSU President Thomas Day rejected the criticisms. “They don’t have anything to do with it,” he said. “They’re speaking out of line. They don’t have one thing to do with it.

“I don’t feel apologetic for getting a state-of-the-art track. That track will not grow weeds. We have thousands of students who will use the track. I felt it was very unfortunate (to lose the track program), but it was a necessary procedure. Hindsight is always 20-20, even from a distance as far away as Long Beach.

“I have a great deal of confidence in my senior officials. (Athletic Director Fred) Miller brought the recommendation to me. I completely agreed with his decision. There is certainly nothing wrong with the (track) program. It’s just something that needed to be done. You look at a way to save the most amount of money, by administering the least amount of hurt.”

SDSU’s men’s and women’s track teams both fell victim to budgetary cuts caused by a $190,000 shortfall in the projected earnings of the football program.

In making the announcement, Miller carefully used the term “suspended indefinitely,” which means it is suspended until Coach Jim Cerveny can raise enough money--in this case $100,000--to put the program back together again.

Cerveny and his staff continue to try to raise the necessary funds. Cerveny said Walter Tuner, an SDSU alumnus and track coach at San Diego City College, had donated $1,000, and Len Miller, a former coach of American miler Steve Scott, donated $500 and is getting involved with additional plans.

“It’s been nothing but positive,” Cerveny said. “A lady (Joan Tunick) walked in today and volunteered to do all the typing and mailing we need done. It’s those types of individuals that we need.”