Rick Mazzuto, director of athletics at Longwood University in Farmville, Va., will be on campus Wednesday, July 26, for a series of interviews, including an open forum at 1 p.m. Mazzuto, like all the finalists, will meet separately with Northridge President Jolene Koester, interim Vice President for Administration and Finance James Sullivan, search committee members, faculty, head coaches, athletics staff, student-athletes and other students, as well as other members of the campus community.

Prior to joining Longwood in 2002, Mazzuto served as athletics director at Saint Mary's College of California in Moraga for 12 years. He also has served as an instructor in the extension program at UC Berkeley, athletics director/assistant to the vice president for athletics policy at Iona College and sports information director at several institutions. He earned a B.A. and an M.A. in political science from Trinity College.

Other finalists include Janet Lucas, the interim director of athletics at Northridge, and William Weidner, deputy athletics director for the University of Central Florida.

The search committee, chaired by Penelope Jennings, associate vice president for faculty affairs, will meet after the last campus visit, consider feedback received, and submit its recommendations to Koester and Sullivan. An athletic director selection could be made by the end of August.

The athletic director position at Cal State Northridge is responsible for the university's NCAA Division I-AAA athletics program, which has a nearly $7 million annual budget, about 400 student-athletes and 20 intercollegiate teams, nine for men and 11 for women. Most of Northridge's teams compete in the California-based Big West Conference.

California State University, Northridge has 33,000 full- and part-time students and offers 63 bachelor's and 48 master's degrees as well as 28 education credential programs. Founded in 1958, CSUN is among the largest single-campus universities in the nation and the only four-year public university in the San Fernando Valley. The university serves as the intellectual, economic and cultural heart of the Valley and beyond.