Beren Campus Students Receive Access to Pool on Upper East Side

The Stern College for Women (SCW) Athletics Department began offering weekly open swim sessions for Beren Campus students at no cost last month. The sessions take place in two one-hour-long shifts every Tuesday evening at the Moise Safra Center on the Upper East Side, and are accompanied by free round-trip transportation provided by the university. 

Athletics Director Greg Fox announced this initiative early February, with the first open-swim session taking place on Feb. 7. According to Fox, the initiative was spearheaded primarily by Associate Director of Athletics Carly Moss and Director of Athletics Operations and Administration Sarah Hiller. 

“My associate director [Moss] and I frequently discuss how we can best increase, improve and enhance recreational programming for students at Stern College,” Fox shared with The Commentator. 

The Moise Safra Center is located on the Upper East Side and provides services to the Manhattan Jewish community, including access to a four-lane swimming pool. The center was contacted by the athletics office, and was open to the idea of providing a female-only swim night, with female lifeguards, for Beren Campus students. 

Shifts take place at 7 and 8 p.m., with shuttles leaving from Beren a half hour before the start of a shift.

Fox shared that students in the past have requested swim opportunities on Beren Campus, and Moss added that in a survey sent out to Beren Campus students last semester, over 100 students showed interest in having swim opportunities. 

The Gottesman Swimming Pool, located on Wilf Campus, has never been open to Beren students. 

Previous attempts to offer swimming opportunities to Beren students have been unsuccessful or else did not last. 

“Often natatoriums have windows, shared locker rooms for genders or were unable to confirm that only females would have access to the facilities and that a female lifeguard would always be on duty,” Moss explained, clarifying the factors making it challenging to gain swimming space for Beren students. 

“It is a high priority to provide these types of health and wellness opportunities for women,” Fox said. “We are hopeful that we can sustain this momentum, continue to have great turnouts at Tuesday night swim and field suggestions from SCW students as to other opportunities that we can delve into.”

Transportation costs to and from the pool are sponsored by the Dean of Students’ office and are available to students at no cost.

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Photo Caption: Beren Campus students can now use a pool at the Moise Safra Center every Tuesday at no cost.

Photo Credit: Yeshiva University