CSUN Group Plans to Build $2.5-Million Club

NORTHRIDGE — Despite opposition from its student members, the board of a Cal State Northridge auxiliary voted Thursday to borrow $2.5 million to build a new University Club replacing the present faculty and staff club near Nordhoff Street and Zelzah Avenue.

CSUN President Blenda Wilson, who chairs the University Corp., and Donald Queen, its chief executive, defended the decision. The present club is in disrepair and would cost about $1.8 million to fix, Queen said.

“Its annual repair bill will be so high that replacing it is more prudent,” Wilson told the board at a meeting attended by 20 members and university staff.

She said the campus and the region need a proper place for meeting and entertaining. The proposed 12,500-square-foot club, she said, would have two large meeting rooms. Wilson promised to consult with the university community before selecting the site and preparing the plan.

The building is the former faculty club, built in 1974. Membership was opened in the mid-1980s to other employees--but not students--for dues of about $15 a month.

“Why do we need this? How is it going to benefit the campus community?” asked Bruce Najbergier, a student member of the University Corp. board that operates the $640,000-a-year facility.

“I am not sure whether it’s the most pressing need of the university at this time.”

Najbergier noted that the corporation executives have neither a site nor a plan for the new facility. “I was uncomfortable with approving funding for something that I didn’t know much about.”

Najbergier said “the campus concept might be outdated” in 30 years, the term of the loan, given the growing tendency for people to work and study from home that could render such a club unnecessary. These issues, he said, were not properly explored, and that’s why he voted against the proposal along with fellow student directors Carlos Camargo and Janie Jones.

Roger Waldbaum, a community activist and a university critic, said he, too, was unsure a new club was needed, especially when the university has been cutting popular athletic programs to save money.

Faced with a potential $520,000 deficit, Wilson cut four men’s sports--soccer, baseball, volleyball and swimming--from the school’s athletic program early this year. They were restored for another year after the state agreed to provide additional funding.

Waldbaum said that the $2.5 million earmarked for the University Club was enough to keep the four sports going for another five years. “I am not sure about their priorities,” he said.

Wilson replied that “It’s not a question of priority but a matter of corporate responsibility. The University Corp. is the manager of this facility, not the manager of the athletic” department that is supported by students’ fees.