I’m writing to question and protest your recently announced decision to close Legion Pool. Given Legion Pool’s place in history as Athens’ first integrated swimming pool and the last surviving Works Progress Administration pool in the South, your decision to demolish it is shortsighted and offensive to UGA’s role as a community partner. Many of the reasons for closing Legion Pool cited in the Working Group report are disingenuous.
My questions include:
• Who served on the working group?
• Were any members of the working group regular Legion Pool patrons?
• Were any regular users interviewed for the study?
• The study period cited in the report was 2019–2024. Legion Pool was closed due to COVID-19 for two of those years. How could averages from that period accurately reflect revenue and costs?
Legion Pool has been threatened with demolition since the Michael Adams administration, and UGA has now managed to engineer the data they need to justify pulling the plug—for 70 parking spaces. Given the current and projected admission numbers (more than 5,000 freshmen, plus transfers), there will never be enough parking. A car for every student is not sustainable. Maybe it’s time to consider not allowing freshmen to bring their cars?
To the many Legion Pool regulars, most of whom are UGA staff, it’s been obvious since reopening that Legion has been run in a manner that would assure the financial justification UGA needed to argue for its closure. I’m not surprised by your reported, yet misleading, average student usage rate of 2.5%. While it may be underutilized by students, I don’t think you realize the place Legion holds in the hearts of generations of Athenians, much less the benefit to staff and their families.
The pool season runs when most dorms are closed, and the student population is less than 20% of fall/spring enrollment. But more importantly, what do you expect when the majority of students who do use the pool only found out about it by accident? It’s worth considering whether Student Activities is the best fit to oversee Legion Pool operations.
I wrote an op-ed in 2021 advocating that UGA should open Legion to reward faculty and staff who pivoted and saved UGA’s 2020 academic year during the onset of COVID. My argument then, as it is now, is that the university doesn’t run without staff, and Legion Pool plays a major role in the lives of a great many staff members. According to your report, 43% of visitors in 2024 were students (12%) or staff (31%). Another 38% were children or campers. That means up to 81% of users in 2024 were affiliated with UGA. That’s a more telling statistic than the 2.5% average student use cited in the report.
Additionally, how could you expect Legion Field to be fully utilized when it’s surrounded by a 10-foot fence that’s gated and locked? When I was a student here in the 1980s, Legion Field was open, accessible and a central part of our social life. The grass was always completely worn out by the end of summer/middle of fall quarter, and the shady hillsides were usually well populated. Not to mention the free concerts sponsored by University Union. Legion Pool was thriving during those years because students knew it was there.
And the report was correct in noting that many students live in apartment complexes with private pools for their residents, but that shouldn’t distract from what makes Legion Pool special. Side-stepping the fact that you’re implying only privileged students should have access to outdoor, water-related recreational activities, the value of Legion Pool lies in the stress-free environment, which promotes interaction between students, staff, campers, alumni and kids from across racial and generational divides. Is meeting the bar set by “aspirational and SEC schools” UGA’s goal, or do we want to honor and support the legacy of town/gown relations between UGA and Athens-Clarke County that’s existed—through Legion Pool specifically—since 1936?
On a more personal note, my ex-wife, the late Lara Mathes, who served as UGA’s campus planner for more than 10 years, explained to me years ago that, under the current administration, UGA wasn’t interested in any expenditure that didn’t directly affect student life. Legion Pool was seen as not affecting student life and therefore under constant threat of closure. But Lara recognized that Legion served a vital community purpose and fought hard to keep it open.
Legion Pool was dear to Lara’s heart, as was the entirety of the UGA campus. She worked tirelessly to make the UGA campus beautiful and accessible. In that context, she fought to have the new food services structure, currently under construction, sited behind O-House. Coupled with the planned removal of the Legion Field perimeter fencing, she saw the two moves as serving to make Legion Field more of an inviting and open space, organically encouraging use by students—thereby bringing life back to Legion Field—while relieving redevelopment pressure from the Legion Pool site. She also envisioned moving the bandstand to the pool side of the field to take advantage of the existing natural amphitheater.
Because she knew I had been and would continue to be a strong advocate for Legion Pool, Lara shared her vision with me, and we discussed it in detail in the weeks before she passed. The current plan bastardizes her vision, as it’s basically the removal of a significant WPA historic resource for 70 parking spaces. The changes proposed for the hill on the south side of Legion Field can be accomplished without demolishing the pool.
Upon her passing, in recognition of her love for and positive effects on the UGA campus, the administration was quick to launch a GoFundMe to plant a tree in Lara’s honor. I suggest that if you want to do something meaningful for Lara, create an environment for Legion Pool to realize its potential as the community resource it is, can be, and has been since 1936.
Specifically, I propose:
• Open the pool in April, close in October to allow access when adjacent dorms are in use.
•A two-to-three year trial period wherein UGA moves operational control of Legion Pool to Auxiliary Services, or some other entity, with an eye towards increasing awareness and use, and therefore revenue.
• Any further analysis of the value of Legion Pool to the UGA community should include users, faculty and staff.
My neighbors and I have spent a lot of effort in the past dozen or so years working to solve community problems created directly by actions from UGA—from fraternities locating (or trying to locate) in residential neighborhoods, to housing pressures created by ever-expanding enrollment without requisite allowances made for student housing (and their cars), to the sale of the President’s House for an inappropriately scaled use, and now closing Legion Pool, a treasured community resource. The latter two are attributable in part to maintenance deferred. My point is this: UGA does not exist in a vacuum, and has an outsized effect on Athens-Clarke County. We need to start working in true collaboration so that both can reach their highest potential. Working together to save Legion Pool is a great place to start.
Like what you just read? Support Flagpole by making a donation today. Every dollar you give helps fund our ongoing mission to provide Athens with quality, independent journalism.
When my neighbors and I heard that a hotel was planned for the UGA President’s House, we were genuinely excited, envisioning a boutique hotel that would preserve the historic...
Athens has a reputation for leaving studies on the shelf to gather dust. Change is difficult—we get it—but it sometimes seems like we’re searching for reasons to not take...
Congratulations to the people of Athens-Clarke County for the overwhelming support of T-SPLOST on the November ballot. Not only did the measure pass by a nearly 3-1 margin, it...
Editor’s note: Eubanks sent this email to the Mayor and Commission last week. See City Dope for more information about the proposed Mitchell Street development, which will be up...
An Open Letter to the UGA Administration: Keep Legion Pool Open
I’m writing to question and protest your recently announced decision to close Legion Pool. Given Legion Pool’s place in history as Athens’ first integrated swimming pool and the last surviving Works Progress Administration pool in the South, your decision to demolish it is shortsighted and offensive to UGA’s role as a community partner. Many of the reasons for closing Legion Pool cited in the Working Group report are disingenuous.
My questions include:
• Who served on the working group?
• Were any members of the working group regular Legion Pool patrons?
• Were any regular users interviewed for the study?
• The study period cited in the report was 2019–2024. Legion Pool was closed due to COVID-19 for two of those years. How could averages from that period accurately reflect revenue and costs?
Legion Pool has been threatened with demolition since the Michael Adams administration, and UGA has now managed to engineer the data they need to justify pulling the plug—for 70 parking spaces. Given the current and projected admission numbers (more than 5,000 freshmen, plus transfers), there will never be enough parking. A car for every student is not sustainable. Maybe it’s time to consider not allowing freshmen to bring their cars?
To the many Legion Pool regulars, most of whom are UGA staff, it’s been obvious since reopening that Legion has been run in a manner that would assure the financial justification UGA needed to argue for its closure. I’m not surprised by your reported, yet misleading, average student usage rate of 2.5%. While it may be underutilized by students, I don’t think you realize the place Legion holds in the hearts of generations of Athenians, much less the benefit to staff and their families.
The pool season runs when most dorms are closed, and the student population is less than 20% of fall/spring enrollment. But more importantly, what do you expect when the majority of students who do use the pool only found out about it by accident? It’s worth considering whether Student Activities is the best fit to oversee Legion Pool operations.
I wrote an op-ed in 2021 advocating that UGA should open Legion to reward faculty and staff who pivoted and saved UGA’s 2020 academic year during the onset of COVID. My argument then, as it is now, is that the university doesn’t run without staff, and Legion Pool plays a major role in the lives of a great many staff members. According to your report, 43% of visitors in 2024 were students (12%) or staff (31%). Another 38% were children or campers. That means up to 81% of users in 2024 were affiliated with UGA. That’s a more telling statistic than the 2.5% average student use cited in the report.
Additionally, how could you expect Legion Field to be fully utilized when it’s surrounded by a 10-foot fence that’s gated and locked? When I was a student here in the 1980s, Legion Field was open, accessible and a central part of our social life. The grass was always completely worn out by the end of summer/middle of fall quarter, and the shady hillsides were usually well populated. Not to mention the free concerts sponsored by University Union. Legion Pool was thriving during those years because students knew it was there.
And the report was correct in noting that many students live in apartment complexes with private pools for their residents, but that shouldn’t distract from what makes Legion Pool special. Side-stepping the fact that you’re implying only privileged students should have access to outdoor, water-related recreational activities, the value of Legion Pool lies in the stress-free environment, which promotes interaction between students, staff, campers, alumni and kids from across racial and generational divides. Is meeting the bar set by “aspirational and SEC schools” UGA’s goal, or do we want to honor and support the legacy of town/gown relations between UGA and Athens-Clarke County that’s existed—through Legion Pool specifically—since 1936?
On a more personal note, my ex-wife, the late Lara Mathes, who served as UGA’s campus planner for more than 10 years, explained to me years ago that, under the current administration, UGA wasn’t interested in any expenditure that didn’t directly affect student life. Legion Pool was seen as not affecting student life and therefore under constant threat of closure. But Lara recognized that Legion served a vital community purpose and fought hard to keep it open.
Legion Pool was dear to Lara’s heart, as was the entirety of the UGA campus. She worked tirelessly to make the UGA campus beautiful and accessible. In that context, she fought to have the new food services structure, currently under construction, sited behind O-House. Coupled with the planned removal of the Legion Field perimeter fencing, she saw the two moves as serving to make Legion Field more of an inviting and open space, organically encouraging use by students—thereby bringing life back to Legion Field—while relieving redevelopment pressure from the Legion Pool site. She also envisioned moving the bandstand to the pool side of the field to take advantage of the existing natural amphitheater.
Because she knew I had been and would continue to be a strong advocate for Legion Pool, Lara shared her vision with me, and we discussed it in detail in the weeks before she passed. The current plan bastardizes her vision, as it’s basically the removal of a significant WPA historic resource for 70 parking spaces. The changes proposed for the hill on the south side of Legion Field can be accomplished without demolishing the pool.
Upon her passing, in recognition of her love for and positive effects on the UGA campus, the administration was quick to launch a GoFundMe to plant a tree in Lara’s honor. I suggest that if you want to do something meaningful for Lara, create an environment for Legion Pool to realize its potential as the community resource it is, can be, and has been since 1936.
Specifically, I propose:
• Open the pool in April, close in October to allow access when adjacent dorms are in use.
•A two-to-three year trial period wherein UGA moves operational control of Legion Pool to Auxiliary Services, or some other entity, with an eye towards increasing awareness and use, and therefore revenue.
• Any further analysis of the value of Legion Pool to the UGA community should include users, faculty and staff.
My neighbors and I have spent a lot of effort in the past dozen or so years working to solve community problems created directly by actions from UGA—from fraternities locating (or trying to locate) in residential neighborhoods, to housing pressures created by ever-expanding enrollment without requisite allowances made for student housing (and their cars), to the sale of the President’s House for an inappropriately scaled use, and now closing Legion Pool, a treasured community resource. The latter two are attributable in part to maintenance deferred. My point is this: UGA does not exist in a vacuum, and has an outsized effect on Athens-Clarke County. We need to start working in true collaboration so that both can reach their highest potential. Working together to save Legion Pool is a great place to start.
Like what you just read? Support Flagpole by making a donation today. Every dollar you give helps fund our ongoing mission to provide Athens with quality, independent journalism.
Fight Censorship By Reading a Newspaper or a Book
Bless You