The water facilities in the SLC at SUNY Cortland are back open as of March 13, due to a pump that failed according to a campus official.
Upon arrival back to campus students that frequently use the pool facilities in their weekly routines were surprised to hear that there would be no hours of access, those who needed to swim must use the Park center pool as an alternative.
Overall the SUNY Cortland pool complex provides a large hot tub, five swimming lanes, a lazy river that is powered by water jets and a basketball hoop, with a volleyball net and a variety of classes offered to students to promote physical recovery.
A student that was impacted by this closing of recreational pool hours was sophomore Cade Mulesky, an aspiring beach lifeguard this upcoming summer and is training for the exam that includes both mental and physical tests. However with the student life center being closed, the Park Center offered minimal hours of pool access during early hours of the morning.
“It was not convenient especially when I am trying to log in a certain amount of hours swimming per week,” said Mulesky. “To make that worse, the winter has been brutal so walking over to Park center in the freezing cold was demoralizing.
Mulesky discussed other students that he would swim with and noted that after the SLC pool shut down they stopped going. A group chat that was determined on getting swim time together per week. The closing of the Life center made it harder for the group chat to train.
“I needed to train so I didn’t really mind but it definitely impacted other students who didn’t have the early morning window,” Said Mulesky “I know that one of the kids had 8 a.m. ‘s during the weekdays that Park center offered access.”
With such distinct periods of accessibility, pool time for students that were not on the swim team became limited.
Scott Flickinger is the Director of campus recreation for Suny Cortland, Oversaw the effort on getting the pool up and running as soon as possible. Regarding the pool, Flickinger said originally the pool was closed due to a pump failure along with the pool floor being acid washed and patched. However as the repairs were completed another problem arose.
“When we went to refill the pool, the pump had a critical failure,” said Flickinger. “ We had to get a new part of the pump so it could properly refill and regulate the pool.”
Flickinger acknowledged the impact these technical failures had on students that enjoy the pool space, with the great quality that the pool offers, a variety of water training systems and activities including a fully functioning resistance stream that is jet powered. Flickinger said the hot tub is popular among students and promotes a social environment.
However, regarding overall attendance of the pool and activity by the students, Flickinger believes that this facility is underutilized.
“Our students utilize the pool during our operating hours, but we would like to see more students take advantage of it,” Flickinger said.
This facility also serves as job opportunities for students on campus. During the hiatus these jobs were pushed off. However now that it is back open this gives lifeguards hours of operation again. As well as swimming lessons provided to students or local children of the area.
Now that the pool is back open and running, students are taking advantage of the once closed facility. Jake Yankowski, a lifeguard for the pool oversees much activity during his shift, understanding the trends in pool usage.
“Usually there tends to be 4 to 5 swimmers in the lanes, this is a mix of adults and students,” said Yankowski. “A lot of students often hang out in the hot tub, usually upwards of 5 kids in the hot tub most of the time.”
A forgotten demographic when it comes to the impact of this facility being down is the locals of Cortland that take advantage of this pool being here. Aside from the lanes and hot tub, the other aspects of the pool are used as well.
“Per shift there are about 1-2 basketball games being played in the pool and students will swim against the current on the motorized current to improve their strength in swimming, taking their mind off of the stress of school,” said Yankowski.