Director's blues

To say her first year as SF State's athletic director was a trial by fire is to say a certain jury verdict touched a few nerves last week.

"It was the hardest year of my life professionally," said Betsy Alden, who took hold of the reins just in time to deal with two prime examples of an AD's worst nightmare -- the death of an athlete and the termination of a major sport.

Basketball player Richard "Spyder" Saunders collapsed after a scrimmage game in the SF State gym Nov. 14 and was later pronounced dead. In March, Alden announced the football program would be discontinued at SF State in order to comply with a lawsuit filed by the California chapter of the National Organization of Women, which requires adherence to an anti-discrimination law. An agreement stemming from the lawsuit mandates that the number of men and women within athletics mirror the university's student population within 5 percent by 1998.

The result: more than 70 football players were left without a team. Roster spots were added to the women's sports and a women's tennis team will be added by 1998. None of that left the second-year athletic director in an easy position.

Still, she manages to stay upbeat about the program's new direction, primarily because of her progressive approach to other crucial matters, such as fundraising. Alden is currently seeking support from alumni and corporate sponsors to finance a new grass surface in Cox Stadium and an SF State athletic wall of fame. Other in-the-works projects include a Gator booster club, Gator newsletter, student advisory board, newly renovated workout facility, new scoreboards and a strength and conditioning coach.

Alden recently spoke about the trials of last year and the prospective future of athletics at SF State.

Q: What was the charge given to you by President Corrigan when you came aboard last August?

A: To develop the program in a lot of different ways -- to improve the situations with the coaches, to make it easier for the coaches to recruit quality student athletes, to improve the facilities, to improve the win-loss record of all the sports, and in particular to increase our presence in the conference. Basically to get the program up and running in a variety of areas -- particularly development, which is the fundraising aspect. Marketing and promotions. Getting the word out that we have a program.

Q: Was the cancellation of the football program as hard a situation as it would seem for a first-year athletic director?

A: Yes. When I interviewed, I knew that the Cal-NOW consent decree loomed over the shoulders of the university. I knew it and I was told it and I was asked what I would do about it, and I honestly answered 'I don't have a clue.' I mean, I had no game plan when I came in here. I didn't know what we were going to do, but I did the research over the fall semester and into January and February. It was really hard.

Q: When the program was cut, you were quoted as saying "Coach Mannini has a good point when he says male athletes are now the ones being discriminated against." What did you mean?

A: Unfortunately, what happened with Title IX -- which was passed 20 years ago -- was most of the colleges and universities across this country ignored it, they forgot it was there. And then the Reagan administration took over and the office of civil rights just shut the door and said 'We don't have time for it.' As a result, things went from bad, as far as opportunities for women, to worse. So, here we are under a legal mandate, and we are forced to cut opportunities for male athletes because people chose to ignore Title IX. It's extremely unfortunate. It's just a matter of history catching up with itself.

Q: How will gender equity change the face of college athletics before the turn of the century?

A: I think it's happening now, with the little girls of this country. The message is going forth that it's all right for girls to play sports, which will translate into it being OK for women to play sports. The problem has been not a lack of interest, but a lack of access. When we did drop football, we had a number of people call into the radio station where I did an interview. They were like, 'Oh, I think it's great what you've done for women athletes.' They didn't say 'you've dropped football.' They were sorry that we had to do what we had to do from the male athlete's perspective, as am I. But they were real happy to hear that women athletes were going to get more opportunities at this particular institution, and they hope that many other colleges and universities across the country would do the same.

Q: What do you think the future holds for college football in this country?

A: I hope the football people will look into their future and guard it very carefully. I think football's a great game -- I love football. I don't want to see football go, but I'd like to have us all sit down around a table and come up with a common solution that works for everyone, instead of this fighting that's going on.

Q: What does the budget look like now that football has been eliminated?

A: The good news is that the Cal-NOW consent decree requires that the male operating budget comes within 10 percent of the female budget. With football it was like a 30 percent difference. For the 1995-96 fiscal year, I have brought the budgets within 6 percent. That does not include salaries, however. That is strictly operating expenses -- travel, meals, hotel, equipment, uniforms. The recruiting budgets have been increased in most of the sports. The difference is the coaches in the past never had any involvement in their budgets. Now they have a set amount and can manipulate those figures if they need to. If they don't spend as much on a trip, then they can use that money on uniforms or equipment. It involves them and gives them financial control over their own program. It's like they have their own checkbook.

Q: There is been talk of tuition waivers for athletes within the NCAC. Is it feasible?

A: Our institution is in favor of tuition waivers. We'll have to work through the system and figure out how, but the general consensus among the leaders on campus is 'let's act like a Division II school if we're going to be a Division II school,' because it's so difficult for the coaches. The legislation would say, 'Division II schools with full-rides can't do that anymore. All you can do is offer tuition waivers to your student-athletes,' which would make it easier for us to compete. We will vote in favor of that legislation. The president (of SF State) will be attending the NCAA convention in January, and as far as I know he is the only president in our conference attending. It's really now just a matter of how to get the money.

Q: What can you do to convince an apathetic student body that the Gator sports programs deserve their interest?

A: I'm realistic -- I know there are many students out there who have lives off campus. They come here, go to class and they leave. I'd like to find a way to get them involved in our program. But reality is most of these people are stretched pretty tight as it is. I would really like to get the residential students more involved and part of that is just letting them know when games are. That's been a big problem in the past. My goal is to fill our stadiums and our gyms and make it seem like we're bursting out of our seams. I know there are many people who are apathetic and I understand it. I think it's easy to compare college programs like Cal, Stanford and oh, there's San Francisco State. I think that's like comparing apples and oranges. We have something special here, and that's our student-athletes.

Q: You have said the focus of the department is now on the "overall well-being of each student-athlete." Where does building back a winning tradition fall on the priority scale?

A: I'm big on winning and our coaches are real big on winning. But I think winning is just a part of it. My goal is to have our student-athletes walk away from this program as a graduate thinking, 'Wow, I just had the best athletic experience of my life, and I felt taken care of, I felt listened to, and I felt quality -- I didn't feel like I was a number. We didn't win some of the time, but this was great and I'm really glad I was on the team.' The winning will increase, I can guarantee you that. It's just a matter of putting in place the things that will attract good student-athletes.

[ Golden Gater Online October 12, 1995 ]

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