Editorial: Lead or get out of the way

SNAFU -- Situation Normal ... All F****d Up!

For most people who picked up the Sunday Sacramento Bee and read the story about the baseball stadium fiasco, they may have wondered what really happened. For anyone at CSUS the story had a strong sense of deja vu - how many times has this campus seen a good idea go bad by the time the many cooks in the administration get done stirring up the pot.

CSUS had a wonderful opportunity to get a first-class sports facility built at basically no cost. This was a win-win situation. A developer was going to build the facility, lease it to the campus at no cost and then donate it to the university.

The campus would get a first-class baseball stadium and the developer would get a tax write-off.

Everyone thought the deal was done.

So what happened?

According to the developer, the deal fell apart when the university tried to slip a condition he objected to into the contract.

Sound familiar? All too often, this university decided that it has to have 'it,' from baseball stadium to computer labs, the adminsitration's way or not have it at all. Students, staff and faculty end up suffering for this pig-headedness.

This year we are starting to see the athletics department reap the benefits of the sports referendum of 1995. The teams, students and coaches are doing everything they can to make this a world-class sports program. The only thing holding them back is a lack of proper facilities -- like a baseball stadium.

This administration had a great opportunity to get a state of the art baseball stadium for the campus. An opportunity that, based on their past performance, isn't likely to happen again.

And they blew it.

If this administration really wants to see CSUS become a world-class universty, then it is time to lead the way.

If not -- then stop the lip service and let someone else get the job done.