Bleary-eyed, tank top-clad Claremont McKenna College Stags who traversed North Quad to the Scripps College pool on warm Saturdays this month found bold black letters on the Tiernan Field House doors proclaiming: “Pool Hours Changed.”
According to a Nov. 2012 survey sent to all Scripps students and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps faculty, 87 percent of respondents were in favor of implementing women’s-only hours at the pool, and 73 percent expressed a desire for increased Scripps-only hours.
In response to the survey and advice from students and faculty across the 5Cs, Scripps has implemented new pool hours effective Feb. 1: only Scripps undergraduate students from 12-2 p.m.; CMC, Harvey Mudd College, and Scripps women and female guests only from 2-3 p.m.; and co-ed hours for CMS students and guests from 3-5 p.m.
Scripps Athletic Director Tamsen Burke said that the Tiernan Field House Athletic Department did not act independently and that the changed hours were a 5C decision. She said that the schedule seems to be working thus far.
“Parents Weekend was a perfect test run,” Burke said, adding that students and faculty seem satisfied with the changes.
CMS Director of Athletics Michael Sutton said that he supports the new hours.
“It seems to me only fair [that] the home students shouldn’t feel squeezed out,” Sutton said.
Some CMC students, however, are disgruntled at the prospect of having to limit their hours of recreational pool use, especially since the CMC pool is closed for such activities on the weekends.
“I understand why [Scripps] would want to give priority to their students, but it’s inconvenient that we can’t use it during the peak sunshine hours of the day, especially since the CMC pool is not available for our use,” Celia Flinn CM ’16 said.
Some Scripps students also do not agree with the changes. Alexandra Copp SC ’16 said she thinks the new hours are unnecessary, since the Scripps-only hours are already women-only.
Isabel Smith SC ’16 also said that the new hours are limiting and somewhat unfair.
“I think all CMS students should have the right to use the facilities just as we have the right to use theirs,” Smith said.
Although construction is set to begin on CMC’s Ducey Gymnasium next spring, Sutton said he does not anticipate major conflict with aquatic teams’ practice schedules that might require the use of Scripps’s pool. Sutton said that the renovations will take place largely during the offseason and that conflicts would be minimal.
“The building of the Roberts Pavilion should not affect the practice schedule of the aquatic programs,” Sutton said. “We are not going to practice at Scripps more than we already do.”