A message from ULM President Nick Bruno caused quite a splash this summer after it was decided the Lake C. Oxford Natatorium would be closed for the fall semester.

The decision was made after a study showed approximately $1.8 million in repairs are needed. The study also showed less than 25 students visited the natatorium a day.

Many feared the close would become permanent as the Student Government Association readily looked for new alternatives to the worn-down facility, alternatives it said would spend student fees more wisely.

“We felt it best that our students and this administration use the down-time productively as we consider our alternatives,” Bruno wrote in the message to ULM faculty and staff on July 7.

SGA at first said the need for an Olympic sized pool was not necessary to accommodate the scant number of students using the facility, especially since ULM no longer has a swimming team. The SGA instead opted for a more leisurely, outdoor pool that could better be used for student recreation. The current natatorium could then be converted into a multipurpose facility that would seat approximately 1,000 people.

The natatorium’s potential closure in Dec. is not a dilemma only affecting students. The community has already opened communications in hopes of finding a strategy that works in favor of all parties involved.

As the only indoor regulation pool in the area, utilized by more than 29 identified stakeholders, some in the community felt the closing of the natatorium was a decision too important to be made so hastily.

After several meetings with both sides, SGA President Brooke Dugas emailed a new commitment plan to students on Thur., Aug. 18.

In a statement, Dugas promised to keep the natatorium open for the fall semester while students take time to explore all possibilities for the facility. As mandated in the commitment, a final decision will be reached by Dec. 1, 2011.

“I am very proud that our students have addressed this matter with such professionalism and in a spirit of collaboration,” Bruno said in response to the cooperation between the student body and community of Monroe. Bruno said students have three basic options to choose from:

1. Close the natatorium, use the $25 natatorium fee that students currently pay to invest in an outdoor swimming facility and devise another effective way to use the current building.
2. Renovate the existing natatorium. This plan would keep it the way it currently stands with the non-student community taking on more of the fee charges. This would more proportionately distribute the cost of maintaining the facility among students, faculty and other members of the community.
3. Perhaps the most ambitious plan would be a collaborative effort of all concerned people to give a facelift to the natatorium. The community of Monroe has already received a design by Water Technology Inc. that shows possibilities. The design reflects a number of students’ requests for what they would like in a new pool, even including plans for an outdoor pool as the SGA had hoped to see.

Bruno said a straw poll will be taken at the beginning of Sept. Students can take a stance on which option they will stand in favor of as a future part of their community.

Details of when and where the straw poll vote will take place have yet to be released.