There’s no snack bar, no high-tech water slide, and no fancy jungle gym at the Rutgers University Swim Association outdoor pool, thank you very much.

“We like it as much for what it doesn’t have as for what it does,” said Ghislaine Darden, assistant director of facilities in Rutgers’ University Facilities and Capital Planning Department in New Brunswick.

What the pool does offer – what’s kept families coming back almost 50 years – is the opportunity to swim, grill a few burgers, and relax. And to do it all with people they know and like, people with whom they work or went to school.

Located on nearly 3.5 acres on the Busch Campus, tucked away behind the President’s House at the bottom of a flight of stairs in a wooded grove, the large L-shaped pool is open on a membership basis to faculty, staff, and alumni of Rutgers, the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

Today, a 13-person elected board administers the University Swim Association, taking pains to maintain its low-key, welcoming atmosphere. Last year’s $180,000 refurbishment saw drains and pipes replaced and the filtering system overhauled. New lighting ushered in an era of midnight swims for adults, and this year’s latest attraction will be a movie night on August 15, title to be announced.

Generations of children have learned to swim at the facility, which kicks off its season this year on Saturday, June 13, and remains open through Labor Day. Amenities include a one-meter diving board, a small kiddy pool, a changing and restroom facility, picnic tables with barbecue grills, and a spacious open field with a volleyball net and tether-ball post.

“It’s a wonderful atmosphere,” said Darden, who is serving her second term as pool treasurer at the swim club after a stint as president. “There’s a feeling of collegiality, because everyone knows each other. You’ve crossed paths with the other members, you know them from your workplace, from the community. And those you don’t know, you get to know very quickly.”

Elaine Hewins Shangle, association president, said a favorite activity for many members is an early morning adult lap swim from 8 to 9. "They enjoy swimming laps outside before heading the short distances to their offices," she said.

About 300 families belong to the pool, many of them residents of Highland Park and surrounding municipalities. Annual family memberships in the University Swim Association run $550 for parents and children; $415 for couples (two adults or one parent and one dependent child); and $310 for individuals. In addition to the dues, costs also include a $250 refundable bond and a non-refundable $100 initiation fee.

The bonds are both a remainder and a reminder of the club’s half-century history.

Flash back to 1960, when a group of faculty members and administrators were looking for an outdoor pool within an easy drive. Bob Markley was one of them. He had earned his master’s degree in animal nutrition two years earlier and was working at the Agricultural and Experiment Station when he and a group of colleagues began scoping out vacant acreage as potential venues.

Markley, the membership chair for the University Swim Association for more than two decades, said that once his fellow pioneers had identified the quiet, tree-lined site, they leased the land from the university and went about selling bonds to full-time and part-time university employees to raise the funds for ground-breaking.

The founders included Mason Gross, then the president of Rutgers, who went on to become one of the pool’s longtime members, Markley recalled.

 “One really nice thing is that all the kids hang around together, siblings as well as multi-age groups,” Darden said. “You’ve got 5- and 6-year-olds hanging out with the 17-year-olds, and they really develop bonds with each other.”

The pool boasts a life-cycle pattern of its own, as children as young as 5 join the competitive swim team with its sleek black and red team suits. Many go on to get their first jobs at age 14, when they’re eligible to become desk attendants, and “graduate” the following year at 15 to serve as lifeguards.

It was the swim team that originally appealed to Darden a dozen years ago, when she and her family joined the association. Son Nicola Caputo, then 7 and now a rising sophomore at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, immediately found a place on the team. His sisters, Genevieve, 14, and Olivia, 12, have followed in his (dripping) footsteps.

Both of Bob Markley’s sons also were avid swim-team participants: Eric, 22, who will graduate as a physics and math major from Rutgers in 2010, and Kirk, 20, a rising history and political science major at Rutgers, who also manages the pool’s physical plant and life-safety program.

Although no couples have as yet used the pool as the setting for their wedding, the facility for many years hosted the Highland Park sixth grade graduation party. Traditional events every spring include a clean-up day, usually the week before Mother’s Day, when families send a representative to paint picnic tables, clean out bathrooms, groom the grounds, and generally get the site ready for its summer debut.

Pool memberships for the 2009 season are available. Members of the Rutgers community can visit the Web site at Universitypool.com/index, or e-mail universityswim@optonline.net.  Prospective members are welcome at an open house scheduled for Saturday, June 20, at 11 a.m.