Drowning in Controversy

The C-Lions held a silent protest during the Homecoming parade.
Photo courtesy of Save the C-Lions change.org page

By now, everyone is well aware that Concord University shut down the campus pool until further notice on Sept. 29.  While many students may be breathing a sigh of relief for no longer receiving emails about pool hours, many other students and community members have created somewhat of a movement to try and change the administration’s mind.  

What was thought to be a small mechanical error in the pool ended up turning into something that was supposedly going to take more money for repairs than the university had to spare.  One out of two pumps in the pool had stopped working.  While this had happened before, the university didn’t feel that they had the funds to keep repairing it on top of the regular maintenance and fees it takes to keep it up and running.  Vice President of Finances sent an email to the faculty senate with a very brief overview of what it takes to keep the pool open every year.  That email stated that the cost for labor for lifeguards was $27,105.04, cost for pool manager salary was $19,056, and chemicals were $1,172.97.

While many groups have been going to the Board of Governors urging them to change their minds, the Board of Governors didn’t actually vote on the decision to close the pool.  In their last meeting they talked about budgets cuts and were considering options to help balance the budget.  While closing the pool temporarily was considered, the Board of Governors themselves never voted nor did they have any final say in the decision.  According to Dr. Michelle Gompf, a member on the Board, “on Friday, October 2 the Board of Governors got the same announcement email that faculty did, sent at the same time.”

A group that has been receiving a lot of attention lately, the C-Lions, are a local swimming team who has been using Concord’s pool for well over 20 years.  Their voices have been the loudest following the news about the pool closing.  They created a Facebook page called “Save the C-Lions” mere days after they heard the news about the pool.  In addition to their Facebook page they had a silent protest at the Homecoming parade and have started a petition that has been circulating around campus and the surrounding community.  The C-Lions have tried communicating with the administration and they’ve even expressed an interest in trying to help pay for the repair as well as to help cover the cost of the yearly expense it takes to keep the pool open.  In an interview with the president of the C-Lions on Oct. 6, he said “Pikeview High School offered to help purchase a new pump. I offered to have my company [Lamb Machine Inc.] rebuild the pump for free.”  

While the C-Lions have made their voices heard, Dr. Boggess said the following in an interview with the Bluefield Daily Telegraph: “we’ve only had one student send us an email being concerned. I have received many emails from community members who are not part of Concord, but they’re not faculty members, they’re not staff members, or students who have sent us an email.”  While the community members involved with the C-Lions do help pay for the pool, Dr. Boggess said it’s not fair to the students who pay to go here to have to pay for a facility they never use.  While only one student has emailed Dr. Boggess’s office, there have been a lot of students affected by the closing of the pool.  There have been classes in the past that have utilized the pool, including one this semester, athletes use it for conditioning, and other students use the pool for recreation and exercise.

While the community members and students have all been affected, this decision not only effected them, but the faculty of Concord University as well.  In a Faculty Senate meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 13, faculty were able to express their concerns with the administration’s decision.  Many faculty expressed that they were more upset about how the decision was made because they were not informed of the decision beforehand or even a part of the decision making process.  During the meeting, Dr. Charles Brichford expressed that the faculty should have been consulted before the administration made their decision.  The administration, however, didn’t feel like everyone should be involved in every decision the university makes.  Dr. Brichford made a general remark in defense of an open budget process and not a specific criticism of the pool-closing decision: “decisions that are made with limited input tend to be poor decisions.  I think we can all agree that we would prefer to avoid poor decisions, even if it means listening to a number of people, even people who, at first glance, might not seem to have either a stake in or knowledge of that particular issue.  It often turns out that they have both.”  

Many other faculty members felt the same way.  Faculty also tried giving the administration advice on how to recover from all of the negative attention they were receiving.  Some of the advice offered included sending out a simple message to the community saying that Concord University cared about the community and that they were willing to work with the community, especially the C-Lions, to come up with a solution.  Other things included getting on the “Save the C-Lions” Facebook page and posting that they simply cared about how this decision affected them.  Even if they weren’t open to keeping the pool open, faculty said the administration needed to communicate directly with the community members, not just through interviews with news stations and newspapers.  However, all of the advice was turned down because the administration felt as if they had already tried showing everyone that they cared, but felt like their words were being misinterpreted.  

During the Faculty Senate meeting on Oct. 13, Dr. Boggess mentioned that she had a scheduled meeting with Lamb, advisor of the C-Lions.  That meeting was cancelled.  On Oct. 14 around 4:00 PM the university sent out an e-mail saying the C-Lions and Concord University would only continue conversation through attorneys from this point forward.  When asking Lamb about this decision to involve attorneys he said “The letter that was sent [about communicating through attorneys] was a very polite letter, asking that they not dismantle or do anything to the pool until we had a chance to discuss funding sources and strategies for reopening the pool. It was not legally binding and only expressed concerns about the pool.”  The C-Lions are not suing at this point in the process, even though there are attorneys involved.

Students, faculty, and community members are still working to try and change the administration’s decision to close the pool.  Faculty especially are trying to urge the administration to take a second look at the budget to come up with a better solution.  More information on the budget decisions will be featured in next week’s follow up article.  In the meantime, students interested in seeing the pool re-open can email Dr. Boggess at presidentboggess@concord.edu. Pick up the paper next week for an article on budgetary concerns.