University staff members maintain that all donations regarding the Linsey pool, which closed indefinitely at the end of October due to mechanical failure, have been allocated properly amid concern that the pool could and should have been renovated in the past.Head swim coach Jim Zotz told the Justice earlier this month that prior to 1991, when the pool was part of a plan to update sports facilities, Joseph Linsey had pledged a $1 million donation to be disbursed upon his passing. Around this time, the Lou and Lutza Smith family had pledged $100,000 toward renovations or to be used toward building a new pool.

"We were excited by that, knowing that money was there," Zotz said, but explained that a renovation or replacement of the old pool never happened and that it was "totally unclear what happened to the [donated] money."

He said it was unclear why a plaque bearing the Smith family name was put on the wall of the pool room even though the renovation never took place.

In an e-mail to the Justice this week, Senior Vice President of Institutional Advancement Nancy Winship wrote: "In reviewing both gift agreements [from the Linsey and Smith families], it is clear that Brandeis followed the donors' wishes in each instance. Both of the gifts were designated for either the Brandeis Annual Fund, which supports the University's greatest needs, or for renovations to the Linsey Pool. The senior administration must have determined that at the time the gifts were made, which was shortly after the stock market crash of 1987, that maintaining the University's academic enterprise was the top priority for Brandeis."

According to the University's Web site, annual funds "are used in a variety of ways to meet the University's most pressing needs including scholarship assistance, campus maintenance, student housing renovation, laboratory and classroom support and essential resources needed to maintain a world-class faculty."

Winship wrote in an e-mail to the Justice last week, "Any money donated for the pool was used for the pool."

Zotz said that a renovation or replacement of the pool was also in the University's master construction plans in the mid-1980s but when asked, he agreed that the University could wait to work on the pool so that all funds could go toward the construction of the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center.

He did not comment on Winship's statement regarding the Linsey and Smith family donations.