It has taken me almost two years to get a firm grasp on the Sacramento State campus, let alone learn the ins and outs of its athletic department.

I still walk around campus wondering where my classes are or what the quickest route is from my car to the pub.

And I’m set to graduate soon.

If students who attend the campus on a regular basis are dumbfounded by the whereabouts of Sequoia Hall or where their money is allocated, then how does the selection committee and President Donald Gerth expect the five athletic director candidates to get an understanding of the campus and the state of the athletic department? Especially in one visit.

Kelly Higgins, James Fallis, Mack Rhoades, Nelson Bobb and Terry Wanless may have put in a little research about the job.

Maybe they have years of experience like Bobb, who has 19 years as an athletic director under his belt. Heck, they may have even read several articles published in The State Hornet this semester. Butthat isn’t enough information to come in and save a sinking ship.

I’ve worked a meaningless job at Wal-Mart that prepared me better than this, and I was making minimum wage, as opposed to the $118,488 salary paid to former Athletic Director Debby Colberg.

According to Rhoades, an associate athletic director at the University of Texas, El Paso, one visit isn’t even enough time to begin understanding the problems, let alone any solutions.

"I think that it’s hard to say when you come in for only a day," Rhoades said when asked about the athletic department’s problems during his visit.

If one of these candidates is supposed to lead the department toward Div. I success, why are we shortchanging them with one-day visits?

Why are we not trying to better prepare them?

Maybe the administration and Gerth have lost faith in the department. Maybe they feel this ship will never sail again, and all they need is a captain to go down with it – considering its former captain, Colberg, jumped ship four months ago.

Colberg said she wanted to return to her full-time coaching duties, instead of juggling both responsibilities.

During her tenure as both athletic director and volleyball coach, however, her team’s success never waivered, as her team regularly dominated the Big Sky.

Did she jump ship for a reason? Did she know something nobody else knows?

Better yet, is there something that each one of these candidates should know before they obligate themselves to this campus, the athletic department and the students?

I’m willing to bet there is and, whatever it may be, it wasn’t addressed during the one-day visits.

With the hiring deadline almost upon us, it appears Gerth and the administration will get their captain.

And, just like the students who are still discovering the campus, they’ll find that the one-day visit they paid to Sac State a few weeks back wasn’t as valuable as they and the administration thought.

Then they will try to do what Colberg refused to do four months ago: tread the water streaming in from all the leaks in the department.

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