Two San Francisco assemblymen and a state senator have proposed a $250,000 increase in SF State's budget so the university can reinstate its football program. They also warned if the university does not accept the money, it may influence how they will vote on the upcoming California State University budget.
"We emphasize that our support for the university's budget will depend on your willingness to resolve the issue favorably," state Senator Quentin Kopp wrote in a letter to SF State President Robert A. Corrigan May 15.
Corrigan responded in a press release Tuesday saying, "I truly do not believe that it is now their intention to threaten the entire student body and faculty with the loss of classes because they disagree with our decision to comply with a legal mandate by eliminating our football program in which 60 of our students participated."
Assembly Speaker Willie Brown and Assemblyman John Burton joined Kopp to request that the Senate Budget Subcommittee recommend the Senate and the Assembly approve the money in the 1995-96 budget.
"It's easy to say you're going to provide funding, but hard to say where that money is going to come from," said Jesus Arredondo, a spokesperson for Gov. Pete Wilson. "Quentin Kopp hasn't said where the money's coming from."
Director of Communications and Public Affairs Ligeia Polidora said the university hasn't said if it will accept the money.
"At this point it's only in a proposal stage," Polidora said.
Academic Senate Chair Hollis Matson said Kopp's statement amounts to a threat against SF State.
"Kopp fears that other CSU schools will lose their football programs," Matson said. "I resent having to be responsible for all other CSU football teams."
If SF State was to accept the money, a number of other problems would surface.
The football team was cut earlier this semester to comply with a California chapter of the National Organization for Women consent decree requiring the university's athletic programs reflect the percentage of women in the campus community within 5 percent by fall 1998. Currently, 59 percent of the school's population are women, whereas women constituted only 34 percent of all athletes. However, University Counsel Patricia Bartscher testified at Tuesday's Senate Budget Subcommittee meeting in Sacramento that accepting the money will not solve the disproportion of women in the athletic program.
When SF State cut the football program to comply with the consent decree in March, it was forced to limit the number of participants in all men's sports, increase the number of women on existing teams and add a new women's team in order to meet the minimum requirements.
"We're so far out of compliance with the numbers," said Athletic Director Betsy Alden, "that we haven't even begun to look at the money."
Bartscher said the university would still need to find money to add women's sports if the university took the money to reinstate the football team.
"Where is the additional funding coming from for five additional women's sports to counter-balance (the rise of 60 men players which would result from the reinstatement of the football program)?" Bartscher asked.
She estimated that it would cost between $1 million and $1.5 million to add five women's sports.
At Humboldt State, Spokesperson Michael Slinker said Humboldt won't cut its football program because the university recently added two women's teams.
The problem Humboldt's football team faces is how to find another school to take SF State's spot in the conference, which is now down to its limited number of teams.
"We hope that this will not jeopardize the budget for the CSU," Bartscher said.
Renita Sandosham and Rebecca Simpson contributed to this article.