Making a Splash on Campus-College Recreation Now Includes Pool Parties and River Rides

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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/fashion/college-recreation-now-includes-pool-parties-and-river-rides.html

When Louisiana State University surveyed students in 2009 to find out what they most wanted in their new recreation complex, one feature beat out even massage therapy: a lazy river.

But with dozens of schools (including some of its Southeastern Conference rivals) building the water rides, the university had to do one better: When its lazy river is finished in 2016, it will spell out the letters “LSU” in the school’s signature Geaux font.

“The students involved in the planning process wanted something cooler than what anyone else had,” said Laurie Braden, the school’s director of recreation. “University relations said it was O.K. as long as it followed the font appropriately and didn’t take it out of scale.”

In the university recreation center arms race — with 92 schools reporting over $1.7 billion in capital projects, according to a 2013 study from the Nirsa: Leaders in Collegiate Recreation (formerly known as the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association) — the latest thing is to turn a piece of campus into something approaching a water theme park.

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1. Colleges drift away from their academic priorities

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-lane-colleges-drift-away-from-their-academic-priorities/2014/09/24/30efcda2-4409-11e4-9a15-137aa0153527_story.html

And so it is. Since 1967, all that’s changed about drifting endlessly in a pool is that now you can do it on campus while you’re still a student.

Miniature water parks, including circular “lazy rivers” — with room for several hundred students to float in inner tubes — are standard equipment at a growing number of colleges, according to the New York Times.

The lazy river at Texas Tech is part of an $8.4 million complex that includes a water slide and tanning deck, the Times reports. Keeping up with the competition, Louisiana State University is constructing one in the shape of the school’s logo.

It’s all part of the trend toward competing for enrollment based on student “amenities,” whether lazy rivers or elaborate dining facilities. As of late 2012, 92 schools had embarked on 157 recreational capital projects, at a total cost of $1.7 billion, according to Simon Bravo, a spokesman for NIRSA: Leaders in Collegiate Recreation (formerly the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association).

Just one question: Is this the best use of scarce resources, given that these facilities are ultimately underwritten by tuition and by federal and state taxpayer funding — and that colleges are supposed to be, you know, educational institutions?

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2. So then they live in the lapse of luxury

For 4 years and then complain when the bill comes due. That is why I have very little sympathy for student loans. They want these over priced accommodations and even asked for them. As long as the demand these elite items then the price of education is going to rise. Everyone on DU must agree with me on these points. It is staring us in the face.