It's hard to
believe they're teenagers now. You still remember the day they were
born. But how they've changed through the years, and now they're off to
college.
I'm referring to your children. I'm talking about municipal leisure pools.
The looping
slides, wide decks and wandering expanses of shallow water that
characterize leisure pools have become common sites at municipalities
throughout the country. In the past 20 years, leisure pools have
changed the expectations for publicly provided, community aquatic
recreation.
Now, leisure
pools are packing their recreational elements and heading off to
college and universities. No longer just for kids, leisure aquatic
facilities are finding enthusiastic receptions in the land of higher
education.
Breaking with Tradition
The
development of campus leisure pools represents just one facet of the
changing recreation scene at colleges and universities. School
officials have begun shifting emphasis from facilities designed
specifically for select, elite student athletes to facilities that
accommodate the general student body.
Much of this
change in philosophy came as a result of 1972's Title IX legislation,
which demanded equal facilities and opportunities for make and female
athletes. As a result, schools now gravitate toward facilities that all
students can enjoy and that serve as tools for recruiting a larger
cross section of students.
Campus pools
are classic examples of facilities catering to elite athletes. Most
U.S. colleges and universities have at least a six-lane, 25-yard pool,
and many institutions support world-class natatoriums with 50-meter
pools, bulkheads, movable floors, diving towers, spectator seating and
other amenities that shape a competition venue.
The children
who grew up with lazy rivers and corkscrew slides, however, aren't
likely to flock in large numbers to the campus 50-meter tank, movable
floor or not. And when the time comes to replace an aging pool, the
university provost may take a long, critical look at the substantial
costs associated with a facility that supports a small portion of the
student body.
Standard Deviation
While college
leisure pools may resemble their municipal brethren, significant
differences exist. One is the absence of wet playground features;
students may have grown up with fountains, sprayers and tumble buckets,
but they're now more interested in fitness and socializing. At
universities, play features are replaced by large spas, bubble benches,
current channels and lots of open space.
Although,
slide features exist at most municipal leisure pools, not all colleges
include these features. Some schools emphasize programming, and view a
slide as simply a "toy". But if a school plans to lease the facility
for private parties, the presence of a waterslide can be a draw,
especially fraternity and sorority functions. If a school hosts youth
summer camps, a leisure pool with a slide can be quite attractive to a
seventh-grader choosing a camp.
Because
fitness swimming remains one of the most popular forms of exercise
among students and faculty, lap lanes are a must. This is especially
true if a leisure pool has replaced an existing competitive pool.
Even a
standard six-lane, 25-yard pool can assume a different look to
accommodate recreation users. At West Virginia University in
Morgantown, the six-lane pool is intentionally too shallow for starting
blocks or diving boards, resulting in a pool strictly for lap swimming.
At Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, officials avoid the phrase
"competitive pool". Instead, they use the term "fitness pool".
Differences between municipal and campus leisure pools exist beyond physical appearance as well:
For
municipalities, funding comes from a variety of sources including sales
taxes, general obligation bonds and referendums. At universities,
leisure facility funding often comes from a combination of state
legislature funding and student fees, or solely through student fees.
Municipalities
often rely on users to pay for a facility's operation through daily
fees, season passes, annual memberships and special program fees.
Conversely, most universities still consider recreation centers a
benefits and services to students and don't charge fuser fees. Tuition
and student fees generally cover on going expenses.
Most
municipalities must continually update and improve the various elements
of their facility to maintain user interest year after year. A major
clientele benefit of school leisure pools is the quadrennial turnover;
schools are always getting new "clients" for whom the leisure pool
remains a fresh experience. This turnover reduces upkeep expenses and
promotes higher attendance rates.
School-based
leisure facilities typically experience lower liability expenses than
municipal facilities because the clientele is older and presumably more
mature than the younger visitors at family aquatic centers.
DECISIONS, DECISION, DECISIONS
Schools have
nearly unlimited options regarding the size, features and amenities of
a new pool. When making final decisions, numerous factors contribute to
the end result.
You can't get
around it - the amount of available funding will always play a role in
the type of facility built. One way to perhaps increase funding for a
project is by creating a multi-use proposal. If designers can show
school officials that a leisure pool can also serve the athletic
department as a physical therapy and rehab facility and the physical
education department as a leisure studies "classroom," more funds may
be allocated.
The
University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, for example, justified
requests for state funding by starting that Certified Pool Operator and
other academic courses would be taught at the school's leisure pool.
Universities
that make a commitment to enhancing the student body's experience on
campus are more inclined to support a leisure pool. Officials that
think of these pools are toys are less inclined.
The makeup of
the planning committee often plays an important role. If proponents of
competitive aquatics dominate a planning committee, and general student
populations offer little or no input, indoor 50-meter pools with
separate diving wells and seating for several thousand are often the
result.
With greater
representation from the student population, competitive proponents
usually agree to compromise, resulting in aquatic enters with
shorter-course pools, fewer spectator seats and a leisure element. A
strict budget watchdog on the committee often demands financial
accountability, making the leisure pool seem still more attractive for
its greater revenue-generating potential.
Programmed for Pupils
At the
University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Informal Recreation and
Aquatic Coordinator, Chris Denison never forgets the students. After
all, the students committed their reserve funds - nearly 7 million - to
pay for the school's leisure pool.
Denison
offers programming that emphasizes fitness and recreation equally. He
must be doing something right, because more than 100 users visit the
pool each day. Students also clamor for coveted lifeguard positions.
"I've got about 30 applications on my desk for about six spots,
"Denison said.
Lap swimming,
jogging, deep-water aerobics and scuba instructions take place in the
adjacent competitive pool, which frees up the leisure pool for students
who want to use the waterslide, spa, bubble couch or fountain. To
accommodate class schedules, Denison offers fitness classes in the
morning, at lunchtime and in the early evening.
On the
recreation side, Denison organized a rowdy "Aqua-lympics" that included
underwater hockey, water volleyball, inner tube water polo, and the
"waterslide speed challenge" where students were timed in their
descents down the slide - the record is 7.4 seconds.
Denison takes
care of the university community as well. More than 400 faculty and
staff members paid a $120 annual fee to use campus fitness facilities,
which include the leisure and competitive pools. On weekends, they can
bring their immediate family for no charge and can enroll their
children in learn-to-swim programs.
Additional
revenues come from renting pool time to outside users. Ever protective
of students' pool time, Denison rents the pool to outsiders only during
less attractive time slots: Fridays after 10 p.m., Saturdays between 6
and 8 pm., and early Sunday mornings. When student groups reserve the
pool (fraternities and sororities often snap up the Friday night spot),
they pay only the lifeguards' wages. With the modest revenue he
collects, Denison hopes to offer aquatic management seminars.