Quick action by its booster club has saved Cal State-Northridge men’s soccer program for the time being. Just a few weeks after Cal State Northridge announced plans to cut four popular men’s sports, university president Blenda Wilson restored the program for the ’97 season after boosters came up with the funds to cover the program’s operating expenses estimated at $10,405. In making its announcement about the dissolution of the men’s soccer, baseball, swimming and volleyball programs to meet Title IX and California gender equity requirements, Northridge had agreed to honor coaches’ salaries and athletic scholarships for the 1997-98 academic year. “The two keys we were able to demonstrate that we could support the operating expenses, at least for this year,” said Sally Schmidt, president of the Cal State-Northridge soccer booster club. “We had enough in place before we went in. The other was Blenda Wilson was not aware we had formed a booster club.” The decision to drop the four sports sparked an outcry in the community. The Northridge soccer boosters even received the support of the local chapter of the National Organization of Women, which doesn’t want enforcement of Title IX to result in the creation of women’s opportunities at the expense of existing opportunities for men. The Northridge boosters suggested that the decision to immediately drop the soccer program would result in educational, economic and athletic hardship. Soccer players wishing to transfer may have to take as much as an extra year of studies to complete degree requirements. Most of the Northridge players reside locally and would face economic hardships if they moved away from home to play. Soccer was the one fall sport that was dropped, so players would have a difficult time hooking up with a new program on short notice. One player, Brandon Fonseca, has left to sign with German First Division club Kaiserslautern’s amateur team in the Regionalliga. Northridge boosters do face the difficult task of trying to save the men’s program beyond the fall season. An agreement between the Cal State system and NOW on gender equity takes effect during the 1998-99 school year. The imbalance in funding was heightened by Northridge’s decision to join the Big Sky Conference and expand its modest football program. The fact that the soccer program had a booster program may also help it in the long run. Soccer has a better shot at being reinstated permanently, if it is the only sport still in the fight, rather than one of four sports.