Swimming in Excuses

December 3, 2004

Let’s face it—athletic funding is a scarce commodity on the Tufts campus. We are not a Division I school, nor does our curriculum hinge around sports-related activities. We cannot feasibly expect our administration to address every minor problem and complaint about our team resources. It just doesn’t matter—until students get hurt.

And then it could come right back to potentially sabotage many of the university’s financial endeavors.

Hamilton Pool, an antiquated, foundationally insecure facility for our swimming teams, and open to all Tufts students and our surrounding communities, is in dire need of replacement. Swimming coaches and team members claim that the pool is beyond repair, and that the act of creating the architecturally-sophisticated Gantcher Center around the facility has only exacerbated its already problematic atmosphere.

Complaints have been made concerning the health risks posed by the Hamilton Pool, with several swimming team members associating being forced to use the pool with increased respiratory problems, asthma-like episodes of obstructed breathing, and other illnesses that cannot be quietly written off as “normal.”
Coaches and swimmers from other schools have been subtly ridiculing Tufts’ swimming facilities for years, with some visiting teams feeling reluctant to even enter Hamilton Pool. Although The Observer cannot accurately assess the reasons for their displeasure without further information, the point remains pertinent—this out-dated, possibly dangerous isolated environment is making the talented and hardworking Tufts swimming teams seem lackadaisical and ill-equipped, and is thereby denigrating the overall reputation of Tufts as a cutting-edge multi-tier university.

Problems with the pool affect more students than just members of the swimming teams; Tufts divers cannot even use Hamilton Pool for practice or competition because it is not constructed to handle the spatial requirements of diving. Currently divers need to use Harvard or MIT facilities on a regular basis, basically relegating an actual team at Tufts to veritable exile due to a bacteria-ridden athletic atrocity that ought to be shut down considering allegations about its health risks.

Administrators and coaches have agreed that although the pool warrants serious attention, funds to rebuild the facility do not exist at this time. We could analyze the merits of other ventures towards which the university is contributing our tuition instead of building a new pool, but nothing can be done to remedy this situation until we can acquire the support of a generous alumni donor or pursue some other pragmatic option. After all, it is easy to complain, but it is another matter entirely to actually solve a problem.

But is it really easy to complain? If so, why haven’t there been more vocal protests against the state of Hamilton Pool and the potential ramifications of ignoring the issues surrounding it? Why haven’t swimmers and coaches appealed to outside sources, actively publicized their discontent, or refused to use the facility at all pending complete reconstruction?

A call for administrative action is in order alongside increased discourse related to the subject of Hamilton Pool and the communities to which it applies. Under-funded initiatives have rarely succeeded without large-scale, public displays of dissatisfaction, and verifiable facts and studies. If Hamilton Pool is to be shut down and rebuilt as we deem advisable, there needs to be significantly more action taken by everyone it affects.