Wright Questions Procedure in CAL-NOW Settlement

NORTHRIDGE —  State Sen. Cathie Wright, appearing Monday at the fifth meeting of the Cal State Northridge Task Force on Intercollegiate Athletics, questioned why the CSU/CAL-NOW settlement was passed without the consultation of CSU administrators and students.

“I’m very disappointed that the chancellor signed off on this,” said Wright (R-Simi Valley). “Two attorneys decided this. The university wasn’t consulted, the students weren’t consulted and the community wasn’t consulted. I think we should go back and negotiate.”

Wright fired pointed questions at Linda Joplin, the chairwoman for the CAL-NOW Athletic Equity Committee, which has given all CSU campuses until the 1998-99 school year to bring their athletic programs into compliance with the settlement.

“Why put the state university system in the state it is today?” Wright asked Joplin. “Why could it not just have been a matter of [CSU campuses] following Title IX? [The settlement] goes beyond that.”

Joplin noted that, by law, CSU campuses are required to comply to both the settlement and Title IX.

Wright countered that “you can’t take each university and say each has to have the same program.”

Joplin said that whatever is decided, there must be gender equality. “What we’re saying is that the status quo is not good enough. Institutions do not change unless they are forced to.”