The Student Government Association (SGA) recently passed a referendum that, if approved, would raise fees to pay for an outdoor pool in Bayou Park.
The referendum comes after a straw poll vote in December showed students preferred the outdoor pool to the natatorium. Students will vote on the referendum in April.
The new fee would cost students taking four or more hours an additional $65 per semester, a number less than first estimated. The pool’s size has been scaled back 75 percent to make it more cost efficient, according to SGA adviser Nathan Hall.
The total cost of the pool is expected to be between $10 and $12 million. Some argue Bayou Park will help in recruiting and give students more things to do on campus. SGA Pres. Brooke Dugas suggested the outdoor pool may be the way of the future. “Do we want to be at a standstill or move forward?” Dugas said. “We’re facing difficult times, but we still want to be competitive with other
colleges.”
Critics of the straw poll argue the voter turnout was too low to show how students really feel, but Dugas said the turnout was actually higher than last year’s fall election.
Another referendum institutes a $25 fee to renovate the natatorium into an event venue. If passed, the fee could not be used to renovate the natatorium into a better swimming pool.
Hall and Dugas both said the University has no preference to the new plans or keeping the natatorium. They say their only interest is in giving students what they want. “It would be wrong for us not to put this in their hands,” Dugas said.