<p>I like to swim regularly for exercise and have a few questions.</p>
<ol>
<li>Is the pool at SERF open regularly for people to swim casually?</li>
<li>Is that the only pool that would be fairly accessible to me? (gonna be in sellery)</li>
</ol>
<p>Yes, its open to casual swimmers - check the open swim hours on the Serf page. Its the nearest pool, but you can also swim at the Natatorium on the other side of campus.</p>
<p>I definitely swam at the SERF when I lived in Sellery. Talk about an awesome way to stay sane during the winter. I remember the days you’d get through hoofing it on a frigid winter day, only to get right into the warm pool area. SUCH a good feeling. The SERF is awesome. You’ll be there a lot, living in Sellery.</p>
<p>Cool</p>
<p>@MNBadger did the pool get very crowded at the SERF? Ever trouble finding a lane to share? Or did you have to swim clockwise laps with 3+ people regularly?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>Hey Mike – sometimes it was a little more crowded than I preferred but where i grew up at the YMCA i never had to really share lanes much I’d say I was usually doing clockwise laps with 4 people including myself at the busiest times. If you can turn yourself into a morning person i’d recommend it. if there are open hours in the early AM go then. you’ll feel refreshed and be one of the few in the pool (sometimes some older faculty or staff or something, but very few students there then)</p>
<p>I looked at time for open lap swims
looks like 11-2 and 6-9:30 most days</p>
<p>Back in the day there was pool time reserved for nude swimming or at least suit optional. But it also was segregated by sex.</p>
<p>Swimming at the Old Red Gym was nude-required.</p>
<p>Hahaha. Seriously?! Learn something new every day.</p>
<p>There was a narrow pool just a few lanes wide in the Old Red Gym, described as an 80 foot by 20 foot swimming tank. My dad recalls the nude swimming requirement (he is 80 years old).</p>
<p>Here is an excerpt from a book about gender equity (apparently the female UW students were not allowed to swim naked so they staged a protest):</p>
<p>[Double</a> Jeopardy: Addressing Gender Equity in Special Education - Harilyn Rousso, Michael L. Wehmeyer - Google Books](<a href=“Double Jeopardy: Addressing Gender Equity in Special Education - Google Books”>Double Jeopardy: Addressing Gender Equity in Special Education - Google Books)</p>
<p>“Change was often slow, but some schools moved quickly as students and parents advocated for equal facilities. A group of female students at University of Wisconsin-Madison ‘liberated’ the Red Gym in the mid 1970s, which for over a century had been open only to men. The women stormed the gym and rushed the swimming pool, throwing off their clothes and jumping into the pool like the men who had been allowed to swim naked.The action worked, the facility was soon adapted for use by both men and women.”</p>
<p>I remember the women’s lib years along with the end of the war protests- so much now taken for granted was a hard fought battle. UW was a great place for questioning conventional thinking and forcing changes.</p>
<p>The women’s crew team staged a similar protest in the AD’s office to get a locker room at the old rowing facility.</p>