Risk Management Decision May Still Be Overturned
By Senior Correspondent Kevin "Hognose" O'Brien and Senior
Editor Pete Combs
The precision flight team at California's San Jose State
University has been abruptly grounded in what appears to be a
conflict over new insurance rules at the institution. While team
members continue to wrangle with the school administration, it
appears the team may have to miss at least the year's first
competition.
The question is, why?
The San Jose State Precision Flight Team has been decertified at
the request of a university risk manager -- who told flight team
members the situation was "out of his hands." George Sabino
suggested ANN call the school's public affairs department. But the
school's interim president says it's all in the hands of the risk
manager.
The SJSU Precision Flight Team has competed in National
Intercollegiate Flying Association events since 1966. NIFA was
formed under a slightly different name in 1935, in the Golden Age
of aviation, to develop and advance aviation education and safety,
although it traces its origins to the first Intercollegiate Glider
Meet that brought teams from seven schools together in 1911. NIFA
stages competitions around the country. There are events in 11 US
regions, as well as a national competition. Almost seventy colleges
and universities are involved in NIFA.
All NIFA contests are aviation-related. Some are ground events:
test your skill with the E6B computer, or identify aircraft from a
picture -- or maybe, from a picture of a part of the aircraft. And
some events are aerial tests of skill, of which the spot landing is
perhaps the best known (after all, it's the most photogenic).
The competitions are known as SAFECONs -- Safety And Flight
Evaluation Conferences -- an effort to reinforce the message that
this is all about safety.
Who could be against that?
Well, to hear the Flight Team tell it, risk manager George
Sabino is.
University sources tell ANN Sabino decided the flight team is
simply a risk that he doesn't want to manage. The decision to strip
the team of its university credentials came after Sabino learned of
the Region II SAFECON in Salinas. The event, originally hosted by
the SJSU club, runs from Thursday through Monday.
Earlier this month, Sabino and Aviation and Technology
Department Chairwoman Pat Backer sent several messages to Flight
Team Captain Craig Utas, coach Kelly Harrison, NIFA Executive
Director Gary Hemphill, and the managers of the Salinas airport
where the event is to take place. The letters and emails basically
said: this team is not authorized by SJSU; its members can't use
the university name. NIFA was ordered to drop the team from all
events. The correspondences directed all recipients to remove the
University's name from the NIFA websites "immediately." The letters
indicate Sabino was willing to call in the campus police to ensure
the university's name isn't used at the competition.
Hemphill immediately complied and found another host institution
for the Salinas event. While the SJSU team had done all the prep
work, Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, CA, had to step in as the
actual host of the Region II SAFECON.
"I appreciate the chance to comment, but I can't really," said
Sabino. "It's out of my hands -- lots of other, bigger university
departments are involved -- Academic Affairs, Student Affairs and
the Office of the President."
ANN's attempts to contact a spokeswoman for the school
administration were unanswered.
However, Veril Phillips, interim vice president of SJSU's
Division of Student Affairs, told the school newspaper, the
Spartan, that the university's insurance policy had changed since
the flight team's charter was last renewed seven years ago.
SJSU is now self-insured. Reinsurers cover its excess liability
risk for student activities. In effect, SJSU has insurance, but
with a huge deductible.
But the reinsurance apparently excludes aviation risks. (We say
apparently because the team members have asked to see copies of the
contracts, and no one has produced them). It's a bit irrational
that the reinsurers accept sports like football (the leading cause
of para- and quadriplegia in certain age groups) and diving, but
don't accept NIFA competition (the SJSU team has been doing this
since 1966 without a scratch on airplane or person). But then, the
reinsurers may not know this.
"[Accepting the Precision Flight Team as a SJSU-authorized club]
would mean instead of a deductible, where our liability is limited
to $250,000 per event, we would have unlimited liability," Phillips
told the Spartan. "I just don't see a way to resolve it."
George Sabino, speaking to the campus paper, sounded a note of
cautious optimism. "...[A] lot of people are involved. We hope to
have a decision soon."
"We're not giving up," Coach Harrison told Aero-News. "Until
that first event takes place, and we're not in it, I'm going to
believe we'll succeed." And if the problems aren't resolved by this
weekend? "There's the Nationals in Kansas in April. There's next
year's Regionals. We're not going to just go away."