My Favorite Place on Campus

Possibly working through some bias as a lifetime ‘aquatics enthusiast’, my favorite place on campus would have to be the University pool in Alumni Arena. There are quite a bit of sub-par luxury and recreation spots on campus such as the tearing and uneven turf of Kunz field, the ‘no-tipped’ Q’s, and ripped felt pool tables of the Ellicott rec rooms, and of course… Moe’s. Unexpectedly the entire aquatics center may just make up for the rest of UB falling a bit short.

Although the pool was once home to a prestigious men’s NCAA division I swimming team, and is still home to a quite exceptional women’s team, as just a mere student(non)-athlete I am happy to reap the benefits of their hard work. With nearly half of the Athletes it was built for gone in the Infamous ‘UB sports cut of 2017’ much of the pool space goes to us mere mortals on the armature club swimming and water polo teams.

That really is just it. What makes the 25×50 yard pool and 18-foot-deep diving well so extraordinary, is that, at the time of its construction, it was truly tailored to competitive swimmers and divers. You don’t have to worry about kids splashing around in the shallow end, or old ladies in water aerobics complaining that the water is too cold. (It’s supposed to be cold, ok!? When you’re in the water you can’t sweat, so if you’re actually doing a workout you’ll over heat unless the water is cold enough to cool you down.)

I do think it is very rare to find facilities such as the pool on campus, that are as professional in their facility quality as well as they are in their staffing, and are open to the general student body. As much as I may, or may not feel for all those athletes who lost their team on the fateful morning in the spring of 2017, thanks for the extra space.