University of Wisconsin-Superior students will need to find another facility for recreational swimming during the fall semester. The historic Joan L. Hedrick Swimming Pool closed in May of 2023.
The pool was named after Intermural Director Joan L. Hedrick who taught “Aquadynamics” her time as an assistant professor. You did not need to know how to swim in order to take the course. | Photo by Isaiah Wiita
The pool was built in the 1960s for the UWS men’s and women’s diving and swimming teams and was in the Marcovich Wellness Center. The main use of the pool was for Health and Human Performance (HHP) coursework, open swimming for students, and other activities.
The two main reasons for the on-campus pool’s closure were the lack of use by students for open swims and the cost of repairs and operating the pool increased over the years.
“A culmination of several years’ worth of the same things compounding. First off, everything we do here at the university revolves around student use. The need by the students, and student use was declining,” said Krisi Patterson the director of campus recreation. “We logged and assessed everybody that came into the pool. You would either swipe in or sign in, and that number for one full year was 94.”
The Joan L. Hendrick Swimming Pool in its recent years held “movies in the pool” events. The last showing was of “Jaws (1975)”. | Photo by Isaiah Wiita
The 94 total people who used the pool in the 2022-23 school year included students, staff, and factuality.
A feasibility study will be done sometime in the next year to determine what the future use of the pool facility will be.
