"Umm, I guess I could say it sucks," Campbell said.

The swimming pool at Salt Lake Community College's South City campus isn't the one in which he learned to swim, but it is the one in which he first swam, he said.

There are others, though, for whom the sentimental value of this two-tank indoor pool makes big waves.

Located at 1575 S. State, the south end of what was once Salt Lake City's South High School, the pool first opened in 1966, a time when few high schools could boast swimming facilities.

Years since the high school closed doors to be acquired by Salt Lake Community College in 1992, however, the pool became a slow drain now dripping away faster on college finances. Six months ago, the school paid $17,000 to fix a leak on the west-facing diving tank. When the Board of Trustees met several months ago to discuss the temporary fix, and crunch the numbers, they decided the $184,000 annual maintenance bill wasn't worth the expense.

While several community groups use the pool for various recreational purposes, such as the Utah Whitewater Club of kayakers, the college has no water sports teams. Only as many as 200 full- and part-time students use the pool for physical education classes to earn credit hours, said college spokesperson Joy Tlou. On top of that, administrators say, few in the community dip into its waters.

"You can go by that pool just about any time of day and see very little use," said Mason Bishop, the college's vice president for institutional advancement. "It's just not a realistic proposition given where we are now with this sort of bill to keep it open."

Members of the South High School Alumni Association aren't happy, saying the college never considered promoting and marketing a pool few in the community know about before the decision was made to drain and mothball it for future use yet undecided.

"The decision has been very, very disrespectful to us," said Susan Hansen, the alumni association's executive director. "It's not so much an attitude that, 'This is our building. How dare you?' Our disappointment is more from the viewpoint that we see it as a great asset to the community that will be lost."

Even the most ambitious marketing plan would be hard-pressed to save the pool, said Bishop. What the pool needs most is an infusion of funds. If 800 to 1,000 new users signed up for membership costs upward of $200, the money might cover maintenance costs to break even. He doubts that would happen.