Editor’s note: History professor Laura Lovett, who is quoted in this story from a Feb. 26 meeting, died unexpectedly on March 4. The University Times made the decision to include her comments on an issue she felt very strongly about. Look for a full obituary in our next edition.
By SHANNON O. WELLS
In response to questions and concerns regarding faculty and staff access to pools at Trees Hall on Pitt’s upper campus and Bellefield Hall on lower campus, the Benefits and Welfare committee is exploring ways of securing reliable access and hours at these facilities as well as the new Campus Recreation and Wellness Center on O’Hara Street, set to open this fall.
The committee at its Feb. 26 meeting discussed what many consider to be inconsistent hours and access problems for faculty and staff, and proposed drafting a letter to Trees management asking for clearer communications and more equitable pool-use policies.
The committee also discussed forming a subcommittee to learn more about availability and access to campus recreation facilities including the Recreation and Wellness Center, and initiating a Qualtrics survey based on access to recreational facilities.
“They've allowed us to hold on to access as faculty, but they've made it a little bit challenging,” noted Laura Lovett, professor in the Department of History.
“In my own experience, at Trees it’s random when they're open,” she said. “They will close for an event (and) put a piece of paper up on the clear glass door, and you can see that from the street, but they've been kind of random.”
Those driving by the building at 140 Allequippa St. rely “on the visual cue” of the posted paper, she added, but there “isn't a kind of consistent communication. There have been times that I've made my way in, and they've announced that the pool is closed, but you don't find that out until you've (parked your car and) gone down to the pool.”
Lovett proposed that she and committee co-chair Marcia Rapchak draft a letter to Trees management about “recognizing (the) need to be as clear as possible in communicating about access to facilities in light of the discussion.”
Bellefield Hall’s pool is open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. The Trees pool hours of 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 8 p.m. along with “some weekend hours,” tend to make it “more restrictive for usage by staff and faculty.”
Tom Songer, assistant professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health, said while he’s not sure what the plan is for Bellefield and Trees once the new recreation center comes online, he said it “would be really useful … to have a discussion that includes all three.”
Songer emphasized the need to communicate availability of Trees, ideally on the Campus Recreation website while also informing faculty about “what's going to happen to the Bellefield facility and access to that,” and informing faculty “with regards to the new facility. And once they determine what the fee that faculty will need to pay, to let faculty know what that is,” he said.
With a projected construction budget of $250 million, the nine-story, 270,000-square-foot recreation center will be open to Pitt students, faculty and staff, and will focus on physical and mental wellness. Pitt broke ground on the project in September 2022, and the building is now expected to open later this year.
Lindsay Rodzwicz, Staff Council president and director of special projects and strategic initiatives in the Swanson School of Engineering, said fees being affordable is “of the utmost importance.”
“I understand the rationale that students pay a Student Activities fee, but I also think that it would be great — and much appreciated by our employees — if the dollar amount was reasonable to be able to use it,” she said.
Lovett said she doesn’t think faculty and staff should have to pay at all for the new recreation center, particularly if faculty and staff will no longer have free access to the Trees or Bellefield pools.
Songer also noted that given Trees’ location in a dense, busy area near the pinnacle of Pitt’s upper campus, “It's not really accessible for a lot of people to get up to Trees,” he added.
After the meeting, Lovett noted that guaranteed access to Pitt recreational facilities for faculty and staff is covered as a benefit for many when they are hired.
“So to see it possibly taken away, along with a lack of accounting that ignores the savings for closing a facility like Bellefield in the calculation for how the new rec facility is funded,” she said, “means we might be losing out.”
Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.
Have a story idea or news to share? Share it with the University Times.