The Board of Trustees unanimously approved a plan to renovate the Linsey Pool for $3 million on Thursday, said Senior Vice President for Administration Mark Collins in an April 1 interview with the Justice. Collins said the renovation project includes repairs to the mechanical and electrical systems, repairs to the pool and the pool deck, new lighting in the facility, new team locker rooms, a new lobby and a refurbished entryway.

The renovations will begin later this spring with an expected completion date of early 2012, according to a BrandeisNOW press release.

The Linsey Pool opened in 1966 and was closed in fall 2008 due to infrastructure problems such as the broken pool heating systems, which the University decided not to immediately repair primarily because of financial constraints, according to Collins.

In 2008, then-Senior Vice President for Communications Lorna Miles estimated in an interview with the Justice that repairing of the broken aspects of the pool would cost about $2 million and a complete renovation of the pool facility would cost $10 to $12 million,

Collins said while the Linsey Pool is one of several campus facilities that have experienced "deferred maintenance," such as the residence halls in East Quad, the Usen Castle and the Foster Mods, the pool is the only building that is closed.

The pool renovations will be funded through a $10-million capital lease finance agreement, wrote Senior Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer Frances Drolette in an e-mail to the Justice. The term for the lease will be 7 years with an annual interest expense of about $150,000 per year. The annual principle payments on the lease will be $1.3 million and will be funded through the capital budget, according to Drolette.

There are no plans to reduce other parts of the budget as a result of the lease, and "the University is in a comfortable position to adequately cover the costs of the capital lease," wrote Drolette in an e-mail to the Justice.

Student Union President Daniel Acheampong '11 said in an interview with the Justice that "the pool has been an important concern for students since it closed and in a lot of the meetings I had with President Lawrence . [the Student Union] made sure the pool was an important concern, we kept on pushing for it."

Acheampong explained that the Student Union presented a video to the Board of Trustees that voiced students concerns about the pool.

"I went around asking students what were their concerns about the pool . and we recorded what students were saying and we gave a presentation to the Board of Trustees," he said.

According to Senior Representative to the Board of Trustees Heddy Ben-Atar '11, in an interview with the Justice, "We started being more aggressive about [the Linsey Pool] as a concern in October, where we presented the Board of Trustees a video of students talking about how they want a pool . then we worked really closely with the administration and the administration worked on our side."

Acheampong noted that student reaction to the news has been positive and that the pool would be an important factor for admissions and retention.

"Having those kind[s] of facilities to support our programs on campus, it really helps with the development and the growth of an institution. students are really happy about [the pool], they are really excited about the decision . I think [the Board of Trustees and president Lawrence] made a great step really moving Brandeis forward," said Acheampong.

-Brian Fromm and Robyn Spector contributed reporting.