Northridge Cuts Its List of Options : Budget: Decision on athletic program’s makeup could come within three weeks. Division II considered worst-case possibility.

NORTHRIDGE — Cal State Northridge administrators on Tuesday narrowed a list of budgetary options to “four or five” and have begun studying in detail the impact of looming cuts in the school’s athletic program.

Northridge Athletic Director Bob Hiegert met Tuesday with Ron Kopita and three athletics administrators to reduce a list of scenarios.

Kopita, the school’s dean of students, said a decision on the makeup of the athletic program for 1995 and beyond could be reached over the next three weeks.

Kopita said one proposal, “was to continue at status quo, and the rest deal with cuts of one type or another.” Kopita and Hiegert declined to identify which programs were targeted for possible elimination.

Hiegert was reassured by Kopita that the school is committed to remaining in Division I, the level at which the program has competed for the past five years. Dropping to Division II has been considered a worst-case possibility.

Said Kopita: “From my perspective, I’m not at all interested in (Division II).”

Hiegert and Kopita said they hope to meet next week with President Blenda J. Wilson to begin laying out funding options. Wilson is out of town this week.

A wild card in the scenarios is whether the department’s funding from the University Corporation, formerly called the Foundation, will be eliminated in 1995-96. Athletics received $439,000 from the Corporation last year and $282,000 this year.

Athletics has been told it might not receive any Corporation funds next year. Wilson essentially controls the Corporation purse strings.

The funding malaise results from the defeat of an athletic referendum last week. Had students voted in favor of the proposal, it would have generated $2.25 million annually for the department.

The Associated Students, which staged the election, discussed at its Senate meeting Tuesday whether the results should be declared invalid because of problems associated with the touch-tone voting process. Many students did not receive their mailed Personal Identification Numbers in time to participate in the election.

Vladimir Cerna, a student senator who didn’t receive his PIN code until two days after the election, didn’t find many allies. Most of the senators felt that the 4,431 students who voted--a school record--was a representative amount. The measure failed by 199 votes. Northridge had an enrollment of 24,378 as of Sept. 19.