Gabriella Mateo | Staff Writer
On Nov. 21, 2024, the FIU Board of Trustees approved the 2035 master plan, which included the construction of FIU’s third aquatic center to be located at Site 11, located just outside the Stocker AstroScience Center. The proposed site would have rendered Florida’s only research-grade telescope useless.
Chief Financial Officer David H. Snider has now confirmed the university has abandoned these plans.
“The Board of Trustees did approve to redirect the funding that we had received to date from the state of Florida for the Graham Center expansion,” said Snider.
Dr. James Webb, Director of the Stocker AstroScience Center and world-renowned astrophysicist, shared concerns that the light pollution from the pool and the thermal currents emitting from the chlorine water would obscure the sensitive optical equipment of the Astro Tower.
The Faculty Senate had voted unanimously against the Aquatic Center, and the Society of Physics Students, the Astronomy Club and Dr. Webb initiated a petition to save the observatory.
FIU wished “to have the aesthetics of a central pool, similar to ones in UM and TampaU”, according to Dr. Webb in an interview with PantherNOW in 2024, which was confirmed by Snider who said the Board of Trustees wished for the project to be a focal point on campus.
“The logic, within my involvement in it, was more about supporting one of our winningest teams at FIU,” said Snider, referring to the university’s swimming and diving teams who are former AAC Champions.
When asked about whether the Aquatic Center will be reconsidered in the future, Snider expanded that he cannot speak on behalf of the Board of Trustees but that the project is “no longer a priority”.
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