Lakehead University's swimming pool is having a tough time once again, justifying its place on campus.
Declining interest in aquatics has the future of the university's only swimming pool in question. The number of swimmers continues to drop and the school's administration is taking a serious look at the fate of the facility, but the student union is fighting back.

They say that the pool isn't just a 'dollars and cents' issue and should be looked at like another campus service.
After 35 years of service its not the first time the pool is finding itself on the chopping block. Many opponents to shutting it down say it could be turned into a facility with a better revenue stream and Athletic director Tom Warden says he's weighing all the options with respect to the facility.

''It's been a big part of our school and the swimming program has been a huge part of our school historically, so there's lots of really good reasons to keep it. But again I think the only reason we would change that is if it made really good, feasible sense to move forward with that project.''
Previous efforts by the administration to close the pool have pegged the operating costs at roughly $300,000 and with those figures in hand Warden will present his plan for the facility to the board this week.

The university swim team has been downsized to a club in recent years and they have moved to The Canada Games complex, so the pool is seeing less and less swimmers. Student union president, Isabelle Poniatowski says regardless of usage, the pool should be looked at as a service and not a revenue stream.
''My one fear of how this is taking place from the administrative standpoint is that it's being looked at as a dollars and cents issue.

Where I really think it should be looked at as a service providing issues as something that effects the quality of life for the whole campus.''
Poniatowski says a comprehensive month-long pool audit should be undertaken before any decisions are made. She feels that with increased advertising the pool could once again make economic sense from the administration's perspective.

Poniatowski would also like ''to look at the types of users and to get a real hard number because taking pool tickets has proven that it isn't an accurate number measure.