The University of Southern Mississippi offers students the opportunity to become certified in SCUBA, self-contained underwater breathing apparatus, through diving in the Payne Center pool and local lakes.
This unique course has been offered by the university since 1972, and has been run by Bill Powe, the coordinator for aquatics and outdoor adventure, since 2003.
The SCUBA program can get students certified all the way up to leadership instructors (master diver and learning assistant), rescue diver, and scientific divers. This is great for students majoring in forensics, criminal justice, marine biology or ROTC.
However, Powe said, “It’s for everybody. If you just want to have those certifications so you can dive recreationally and feel comfortable leading your own excursion after the class.”
The course is worth an academic credit and is about eight weeks long, with each session lasting three hours. USM provides students with all the equipment they need: buoyancy compensator, regulator, mask, fins, snorkel, weight belt and wetsuit. They will start in the Payne Center pool, venturing to the deep end, which is 14 feet deep. When it is not too cold in Hattiesburg, the class will go to local lakes, including Lake Walter at Camp Shelby, to practice. To get certified, students have to do a minimum of four open water dives, though Powe tries to get his students to do five or six. They conduct their certification in Florida at the Vortex Spring.
Though it is intimidating, Powe emphasizes the importance of safety in this course.
He said, “We can’t make scuba safe, but we can learn to manage those risks and we can make you safer at diving. And that’s our goal, to make you a proficient diver, aware of the risks.”
He encourages taking this course through the university rather than getting certified through a local dive shop. Other courses offer shorter programs that do not prepare the diver well enough. A dive shop will get you certified within a weekend, but the university will take its time to ensure you are aware of everything you may face while diving.
“We’re going to take you through as much information as we can,” Powe ensured. “Our motto is ‘dive safely through education.’”
There are diving assistants in the class who have completed the course but stay to help Powe with the other students. One of these assistants is USM women’s volleyball coach Sean Taylor. Taylor got certified in 2019 and has been helping the SCUBA program for the past couple semesters. He is working towards getting certified as a master diver, but also stays to assist Powe with whatever he needs in the pool, whether that is going to grab some equipment or help out students one on one.
“Just being an extra set of eyes, an extra voice to help some of the students out, helps Bill, and helps all the students get a little more attention,” said Taylor.
Taylor believes in the importance of the class, saying it is great for recreational purposes and possible career paths. One of his favorite aspects of helping out in the program is seeing the development of the students.
“The cool thing for me and being a coach and working with young adults, it’s seeing the students come in, and it’s seeing a lot of them come with fears, but to see them grow as a semester goes on, and to see their confidence build,” Taylor said. “Just to see the confidence and the way people carry themselves, when they come into class, versus when they leave the class, has been pretty incredible.”
When asked why he has stuck with the USM SCUBA program for so long, Bill Powe said, “I’ve really fallen in love with it, I want to keep it going, and I hope that we can grow it.”
The course is available for both semesters, and everyone is welcome to join.
