Page 10
FORUM
Greensboro. N.C.
Sept. 23, 2005
Guilford swimming pool hours too brief, frustrating students
Kate Talbot
Staff Writer
Pool hours and open-swim
time at Guilford College are
ridiculously limited. The only
reason I've been able to visit
the pool at all is because I am
a member of the swim team
and have to be there for prac
tice.
This is not an issue that is
just troublesome to members
of the swim team, but to other
people who would like to work
out.
"I want to train in the pool,
but it's always open while I'm
in class," said junior Veronica
Zych. "Having the pool open in
the middle of the day is really
inconvenient for everyone."
Zych's sentiments echo those
of many students who want to
swim.
Being a swimmer, the best
training I can do for myself in
the off-season is to swim on
my own. That however, is not
an option for me unless I
choose to skip class and go to
the pool.
Monday through Friday the
pool is only open to students
from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., a
time in which I, and like most,
are in class and unable to
swim.
The problem is that the
school is allowing an outside
source to rent the pool during
the rest of the day. Monday
through Friday from 3:15 p.m.
to 9 p.m.. Western Guilford
High School occupies the pool.
This is not only problematic for
open swim hours, but for our
swim team's practice hours as
well.
Throughout the entire sea
son last year, we were forced
to practice from 6 a.m. to 8a.m.
because that was the only time
we had access to the pool. The
case this year is slightly differ
ent. While there are still morn
ing practice opportunities, we
are able to share the afternoon
timeslots with the other teams
using our pool.
Sharing the pool is not the
problem; it is the fact that
Guilford is not the one doing
the sharing. Head Swimming
Coach Steve Kaczmarek had
to ask the visitors if we could
have half of the pool while they
are there. Our team should be
the one allowing for this com
promise, not the other way
around.
Even though we are a new
team to Guilford's athletics, we
should not be shoved aside in
order for the school to get
more money.
It is because of this outside
team renting the pool that
open swim times during the
week are so limited.
One might suggest that I
just practice there on the
weekends, but the hours for
that are inconvenient as well.
The pool is open from 10 a.m.
to 12 p.m., a time during which
almost all college kids are still
sleeping on a Saturday.
There is also another prob
lem with the pool on Saturday.
Every time there is a home
football game, open swim is
cancelled. Apparently both
locker rooms and the pool
deck are used for the visiting
team. This is ridiculous not
only because it takes away
open swim, but also because
they cannot change modestly
there; half the walls are win
dows.
I understand that football
teams are large, but if the two
locker rooms we already allow
them to use do not supply
enough space, I just don't
see the pool deck as the
next logical choice to
house them. There is an
unused wrestling room in
the gym that works as a
locker room as well. At the
beginning of last swim
season, that is where the
members of our team had
to change.
So that leaves
Sunday. However, most
students take the week
end to catch up on sleep
and may be gone visiting
friends and family.
The pool is open from 3 p.m. to
5 p.m. I know that every
Sunday I am more pre-occu-
pied with trying to do my
homework than trying to get to
exercise.
We pay our tuition and
abundant activities and utilities
fees for this school without
question. It is not outrageous
for us to want to be able to uti
lize the school's facilities.
Guilford should care more
about its own student body
than about pleasing a high
school and visiting football
teams.le
Ralph Reed’S talk at Gullferd stirs up questiens ef scheel’s discernment
Becca Spence
Forum Editor
When Ralph Reed spoke on "The
Role of Faith in the Renewal of
America" on Sept. 15, I was surprised
to realize he is not the ignorant jerk I
expected, but rather an intelligent and
compassionate man. I -also realized
that even intelligent and compassion
ate men can be misguided.
Reed said that John Adams once
proclaimed the only way for our
Constitution to work is to have a "vir
tuous citizenry."
He explained that because the
Constitution limits the government's
actions and provides rights to the
people, political stability requires
moral citizens. Moral citizens, he
claimed, are directly linked to religion.
What Reed spoke of here was not
the role of a faith in God, but rather a
lack of faith in human beings. Would
religious people cheat on their spous
es or kill their neighbors if they didn't
believe God had prohibited these
actions? I certainly hope not!
Reed went on to explain what faith-
based voters want, namely accommo
dations such as the public display of
the Ten Commandments.
He defended this
desire by describing
the Supreme Court
chambers and how
the justices make
their weighty deci
sions under a picture
of the Ten
Commandments. I
hope these great
decision-makers don't
need . the threat of
God and hellfire to
make good moral =^==
choices, and if they
do, they are not the people I want to
be making these judgments.
I don't understand how Reed can
truly believe that human morals come
solely from religion. Humans do have
the capability to determine right from
“We would be run
ning around in loin
cloths, beating each
other with clubs, and
taking nuts and
berries away from
each other.”
wrong without faith in any higher
power other than that of compassion
for their fellow beings.
As Thomas Hobbes explained, we
band together because, "the life of
man, solitary, [is] poor, nasty, brutish,
and short."
In other words, we
chose to rise above
our primitive nature
and become civi
lized. If we hadn't
gotten together and
decided not to kill
and steal from each
other, we would all
be unhappy.
We would be
running around in
■ loin cloths, beating
each other with
clubs, and taking nuts and berries
away from each other.
Our moral code didn't derive from
religion, but rather the other way
around.
In fact, it is when this secular moral
code is ignored that religious procla
mations become oppressive.
To take an example from the past,
look at slavery. Hobbes' social con
tract theory could suggest that we
should not enslave other human
beings because we, ourselves do not
wish to be enslaved. We, as people,
have to decide that slavery is just not
acceptable for anybody.
The Bible, though, suggests slav
ery is permissible. We had to adapt
this religious belief to fit with true
morals.
Now think about same-sex marriage.
Nobody wants to be told who they can
or cannot love, so we have to adapt
this religious belief to fit with a true
moral value, the practice of regulating
who one can love is simply not
acceptable.
Reed stated that liberty is "not the
license to do wrong. It's the freedorti
to do right." He is correct. Liberty in
America means that we have the free
dom to do the real right thing, whether
God says it is right or not.SS