To the Editor:

When I was growing up, I did not have many opportunities to swim and consequently, I never learned how to swim. When I had children, it was so important to me that they learn to swim so that they can learn to love the water and not be afraid of it. With so many reports of children drowning, one takes for granted the importance of this life-saving skill.

Nassau Swim Club made recreational swimming accessible to me and my family. When we moved to Hamilton several years ago, I was looking for a local community pool and was disappointed to learn that it had closed some years ago. Nassau Swim Club was open to all and attracted members from the wider Princeton area, many of whom, like me, work at the Institute for Advanced Study or Princeton University. Nassau provided an ideal, safe environment for my young kids to learn to swim, plus a sense of community and belonging. It saddens me to think my children and many other children like them will no longer have this opportunity. The Nassau Swim Club was perfect for our family, not only in terms of affordability, but convenience as well. I am not a resident of Princeton, so the alternatives have higher non-resident rates that are not within our budget and are also much farther away.

We need more places like Nassau, not less. It’s disheartening that the University is not moved by the many pleas from the community, nor the impressive and ongoing effort by the Nassau leadership to turn this situation around. In response to the University’s unexpected move to terminate the lease, the Nassau leadership stepped up and their new business plan shows how Nassau can not only be financially viable and afford the yearly property taxes, but also pay back its debt to the University over time (nassauswimclub.org/retrospective).

The University’s decision at this point to continue on a destructive path is senseless and heartless. Why take away important opportunities for families, including those of its own students/staff, when all that is being asked of the University is to continue a lease for land that is not being used for any other purpose? PU should reconsider its cost/value analysis for Nassau or at least allow time and opportunity for a community partner to invest in this valuable community resource.

Also, as IAS does not have a pool of its own as PU does, it is surprising that they aren’t doing more to ensure that a benefit like this remains available to its members, their families, and its staff. Princeton University offered Broadmead Swim Club a challenge grant

when faced with a similar situation. Why was this not offered to the Nassau Swim Club as well? The ones affected by this decision the most are the children. All Nassau Swim Club is asking for is a chance.

Theresa Arzadon-Labajo
Guilford Lane, Hamilton