Time set aside for women’s swim

Dillon Gym introduced a female-only swim hour last month after a Jewish and a Muslim student together approached Associate Director of Athletics for Campus Recreation David Leach in late September.

Leach said he treated their concern as one coming from a student group and was “able to find an hour that was not a publicly used hour in Dillon Gym.” On Sundays from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., the pool is now reserved for use by women and children under 6 only.

Leach said that Dean of Religious Life Alison Boden fully supported the restricted swim hour.

“These are women who will in different ways cover themselves. To wear a bathing suit and swim in mixed company just won’t be possible,” she explained. “I do support it because I respect that people in different religious and cultural traditions understand that there are certain restrictions on what kind of clothing and what kind of exposure is available to people in mixed company.”

She added that such clothing restrictions are not limited to any one religious tradition.

Leach noted that the only cost incurred is for a lifeguard for the hour. “There was no impact on the facility,” he said. “If we had a group of students come in with a common interest of wanting to snorkel in the pool ... we would certainly consider their request.”

Between six and 12 women attend the female-only swim hour, Leach estimated. “We’re not getting to a point where it’s overflowing at capacity,” he said.

Boden said that the female-only swim hour serves more than just the student body.

“It’s not just students,” she said. “It’s other [women] with gym memberships … and they also bring in children.”

Last February, the athletic department at Harvard designated female-only gym hours from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays and from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays at the Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center (QRAC), according to the Harvard Crimson.

Students at Harvard protested at the time that the measure unfairly catered to minority religious preferences. The female-only hours are no longer offered, QRAC employees confirmed.

Boden said that having a female-only swim hour in Dillon “is not an onerous example. An hour a week for female-only swimming is fine, and they can bring their young children. That’s just great.”

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She explained that Princeton is not special for its female-only swim hour, and that the hour is “only a part of a much broader trend for helping everyone here have an hour of physical exercise a week in the pool.”Leach noted that there was no controversy concerning the swim hour and that “we made some students very happy in our ability to do this.”