PLEASE DO.

A Northern Star editorial raises a simple plea, "Anderson pool should be reopened."

Well, yes, I've gone the entire academic year without my thrice-weekly, noontime laps, and that cannot be good.

The Anderson Hall Pool, built in 1964 as part of Anderson Hall, closed permanently in September as a result of low participation in its open swim programs.

The closing of the Anderson Pool is unfortunate because it leaves students with no pool option on campus and no free pool option in DeKalb.

I'm not persuaded, having been there through the end of the spring 2024 semester, that it was low participation; rather we had yet another shuffling of financial responsibilities with the Recreation Center having management of the pool and the Athletics Department having management of the Recreation Center.  That meant the end of any easy use of the pool facilities by, say, the kinesiology department, which once upon a time had graduate assistants keeping track of the heart rates and laps swum by employees and retirees.

Alexander Hart-Gilbert, a senior kinesiology major, believes it’s essential to reopen Anderson pool to help serve as rehab for certain injuries.

“I think it’s essential, you know, for all students, but I think it’s especially so for like, those that are athletes or those that are going through injuries and stuff, because pools are a great low to no impact way of rehabbing a certain injury, especially if you don’t want to be putting a lot of weight on let’s say your legs,” Gilbert said. “That’s a good way to recover from, like, lower body stuff. But I think it’s just beneficial to all, regardless of, you know, age, gender, whatever, it may be.”

Not exactly phrased in Proper Academic Terminology, but true all the same.

Once upon a time the university had two pools.  One, in Gabel Hall, which was once upon a time an experimental middle school, closed in 2017 when repair parts could no longer be sourced, and the Anderson pool had been closing during electrical storms because the drains lacked proper grounding, and repair parts for it are also likely hard to find.

Make of it what you will, dear reader, that among the organizers of the petition drive to reopen the Anderson pool are the Democratic Socialists of campus,  and the talking points of that petition are ... interesting.