在地标游泳的安魂曲
Could restoring an overgrown outdoor pool be the most cost-effective way to dive back into aquatic athletics?
作者:Petar Petrovic
Landmark College no longer has a working pool on campus to go swimming, and while it has not historically been the most popular amenity in the Click Center, there is indeed a subset of students who would enjoy the ability to take a dip on hot days.
你可能没有意识到这一点, but there is a pond on campus which was once the Windham College swimming pool – it even has a marker on google maps! Neglected for about 40 years, it now teems with fish and other wildlife. Could this vernal pool born from human neglect actually be the most viable option to restore swimming options for Landmark students?
Josh Ascani, Assistant Director of Recreation and Outdoor Programs, says “You 可以 swim there now, but it’s not in good condition to swim in. 我们在学校的点击中心有一个游泳池, 但它是无法使用的, 而且修缮旧泳池可能更便宜.”
“The [Click Center] pool was taken out of service in January 2020 due to a leak that resulted in corrosion of the underground support structure,Kari 帖子说, 体育主任, 健身和娱乐(右图). “The frame had enough damage that it was structurally unsound, 不安全，不能继续使用, 被认为无法修复,波斯特继续说道, “The pool itself was custom fit for the Click Center and installed during construction of the original building. There is no way to simply remove the old pool and replace it with a new one.”
COVID-19 restrictions make operating a swimming pool unfeasible in the immediate future, and therefore figuring out what to do with the pool 房间 currently takes low priority, but 帖子 and Ascani both echoed likely prospects of converting it into a multi-use P.E. 房间, 非常适合尊巴舞, 瑜伽, 健身运动, 伸展运动, 增强式训练, 急救和心肺复苏术培训, 运动队会议, 以及体育课的课堂部分. 这个空间有无数不同的用途, the outlook of diving into a Click Center pool are a little grim.
When asked about the benefits of restoring the outdoor Windham College pool, Grumbine丰富, Associate Professor for the Natural Sciences Department, 对这个想法的看法是一半一半吗. “我是两心眼, it is a great idea to get students to swim during hot days, but it would change the wild nature [living there now].”
Professor Grumbine uses the pond about once a year for his biology and environment classes to gather field samples every fall. He says that “if the pond is to be drained and [we] put in a new liner, then it changes the ecology.” An effort to restore the pond back into a proper swimming pool would indeed be at odds with the existing wildlife.
When asked about the perks and drawbacks of restoring the Windham College pool, Grumbine and Ascani both said that it would represent quite the opportunity for students to get involved on campus. Being just out of sight from the rest of campus, safety and littering 可以 become a concern. Students would have to pay attention to themselves and keep an eye out for others who cannot swim or need help swimming. Ascani also noted the pool 可以 double as a skating rink in the winter, saving the costs that the college currently pays to install one on the quad each winter.
It should be noted that the exact qualities of the Windham College pool are subject to some debate - when asked about the pool, 委员会成员 温德姆学院幸存者 facebook page 可以 either not remember having a pool, or said it was little more than a giant hole lined with tarpaulin, 被称为“口袋”.”
There are at least a few current Landmark students who feel like there should be a usable place to swim on campus. 在对20名学生的小型调查中, 85% of them said that they wanted a place to go swimming on campus. There are some places to swim off campus in Putney but accessing them on foot from campus can be an arduous task.
帖子, 另一方面, sounded somewhat skeptical as to whether the demand for a functioning pool exists. “A card reader was installed on the pool in Fall 2017 which allowed us to determine how frequently the pool was used. The user access reports show that only a small number of students used the pool and did so infrequently,”她说。. “从2018年到2019年的两年时间里, only fifteen individual users used the pool more than ten times (that’s less than once every 10 weeks, 可能一个学期最多几次。).”
需求是否存在, one cannot overlook the irony of a college whose mascot is a shark, 但不再有任何游泳设施. Perhaps one day, the sharks will be able to swim again.
Originally published in Fall 2020, Volume 2, Issue 2
