City College of San Francisco Breaks Ground on New Pool

SAN FRANCISCO, California, January 8. THE City College of San Francisco has started site work on the Community Wellness Center, which will include a 50-meter pool as part of a larger aquatics center.

The college has one of the largest enrollments (nearly 25,000 students) of any community college in Calif., yet the campus has never had a swimming pool.

Students who wanted to learn to swim had to walk down the hill to the nearest public swimming pool, a 33.3-yard pool, for a quick lesson, then dry off and rush back up the hill for the next class. The college seldom has fielded a swim team, and when it did, it had few swimmers.

From 1975-80, pool proponents conducted a campaign with the physical education faculty to persuade the College Board to put a pool into its plans. The swimming supporters secured endorsements and had architectural plans drawn, but the area lacked swim clubs to push for the pool and the campaign didn't seem to be successful. It truly was a catch-22 as not having a pool meant that there were not a lot of swimmers in the area, and not having a lot of swimmers meant less support for building a pool.

Finally in 2001, the College district submitted a $195 million facilities bond to the voters, including $49 million for a campus Wellness Center, with an indoor, 50-meter swimming pool. The bond was approved (by more than the required 2/3 vote), and the center is scheduled to open as early as this fall.

The Wellness Center, which will include gyms, classrooms, meeting rooms and a weight room all in one three-level building, will replace the depression-era gyms which are not seismic safe. Public use of the Center is anticipated, as is the norm with other community colleges.

The new pool will become the second 50-meter pool in San Francisco behind the University of San Francisco. Both will be indoor facilities. The only other pool that comes close is a shallow 50-meter pool built on Treasure Island, the site of the 1939 World's Fair.

Special thanks to Bill Collins for contributing this report.

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