Ohio University students will not be making a splash at the Athens City Community Pool this summer: The pool will no longer be free for Ohio University students during the 2007-2008 summer sessions.

The Department of Summer Sessions plans a number of special events every summer that change each year, said Pam Brown, director of Summer Sessions.

One of the events last summer was free admission for Ohio University students at the Athens City Community Pool, Brown said.

OU made a deal with the Athens City Community Pool to keep track of the number of students and send a bill at the end of the summer, said Rich Campitelli, director of Athens Parks and Recreation.

The pool charged $2.75 for admission and kept a spreadsheet of the students’ attendance. The bill came to a total of $14,869.25 with 5,407 student visits, said Aaron Romero, assistant director of Athens Parks and Recreation.

Athens Park and Recreation tried to do the same this summer, but the university did not want to participate. They then tried to counter for a flat rate of $10,000 for the summer and the university still did not want to participate, Romero said.

“There is a limited budget for summer, and the pool was becoming too expensive,” Brown said.

The university used to have one free night of swimming at the Athens City Community Pool about 10 years ago, Brown said. Once the Aquatic Center opened, the university encouraged the use of that pool instead of the Athens City Community Pool, she said.

Even though the pool is not free, students can attend and pay admission, which is $3 a day or $85 for a summer-long pass, Campitelli said.

“It would have been nice to set up a deal because students like to take advantage of things that are free,” Campitelli said. But, he does not expect the lack of students to have an effect on pool attendance.

However, the pool has already experienced a decrease in the number of OU students that attend the pool this summer, pool manager Charlie Wilson said.

“Last year there were a ton of students,” Wilson said. “Now it is mainly a day camp kids and families.”

Some students may now prefer to go to Stroud’s Run instead of paying, Campitelli said.

OU Summer Sessions arranged other promotions, such as a free bucket of balls every Tuesday at the OU Driving Range, free bowling nights at the Rollerbowl on July 16 and Aug. 20 and a King’s Island trip Aug. 9.