<p>Here's an article about Lincoln University in PA which is not allowing seniors to graduate who entered with a BMI over 30, and it's still there. Here's the article:</p>
<p>You</a> can’t be fat if you want to graduate Lincoln University | Cup o' Joel</p>
<p>The article says they could have taken a “fitness for life” class - maybe that should have been required in the core curriculum ;)</p>
<p>Seriously, if they are going to require it of some, require it of all. I’m appalled by this approach–students’ BMI’s are, frankly, none of the college’s business.</p>
<p>S was required by his college to take two PE courses and pass a swim test. No problem with that–the school didn’t pick and choose who took these–everyone did. that would be the sensible way to go.</p>
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<p>I agree. And really, if they think the fitness for life class is actually useful, why not require it of everyone? As a college student, I know plenty of people with BMIs well under thirty who could benefit from some exercise and dietary advise (especially guys with high metabolisms – just because they are skinny doesn’t mean they’re treating their body well!).</p>
<p>I guess I disagree. Is this requirement unusual? Sure. But why is it unfair?</p>
<p>This university seems to treat “physical fitness proficiency” the same way most colleges treat foreign language requirement. Either you “test out” by having appropriate test scores at matriculation, or you have to take a year (or whatever is required) of foreign language at school. No one seems to have a problem with that.</p>
<p>These students knew what they had to do to graduate when they matriculated. Why shouldn’t they fulfill the requirement?</p>
<p>This is a “historically black college”, and the black community is plagued with health problems directly related to obesity. They are probably just trying to do something to change that. I don’t see anything wrong with it. Moreover, as obesity is becoming a national epidemic, I think more schools may adopt this approach in the future.</p>
<p>I wonder if the U sent out gentle reminders each semester along the lines of:</p>
<p>“Dear Student. You weighed in at XXX but to graduate you should weigh YYY. Please contact the “Fit for Life” department for your next weigh-in.”</p>
<p>I wonder if any of the instructors are under similar guidelines. </p>
<p>Also, I wonder, if as a student I did not slim down but have made a documented valiant effort to do so, can I get back that portion of my tuition and fees which might have covered this attempt?</p>
<p>Private universities can set their own requirements, yes? And they didn’t spring this on anyone, right?</p>
<p>I sometimes wonder about that “swim requirement.” Surely there are some kids in wheelchairs, some little people, some with great fear of water, who are otherwise great school candidates with lots to bring to a college. Do they ever have the swim requirement waived? Just pondering that one.</p>
<p>So, if you tell someone they have to have a certain BMI to graduate, can the student just keep taking classes for another year or two until they come into some bureaucrat’s guidelines? What about the shot-putter or the wrestler who might have a very high BMI but is actually fairly fit?</p>
<p>I think it’s a stupid idea and is likely also to get the school sued for violating ADA. The school would be smarter to require physical fitness courses for all. My younger S has a great BMI but through high school was the family couch potato. He went to a LAC that required 3 semesters of physical fitness. The courses included some options that S thought would be fun – swimming, ballroom dancing, tennis. Due to taking those courses, he became much more physically active and continues his physical activities even though he has finished the required courses.</p>
<p>I wish that my college had had such a requirement. Then it wouldn’t have taken me decades to learn that being physically active is fun, not punishment or simply something one grits one’s teeth to do to keep from being overweight.</p>
<p>I think it’s a stupid idea. There’s a discussion about it on the college life forum and it seems to have degenerated into something hugely undesirable. I’ll sum it up in one sentence: It’s none of the university’s business.</p>
<p>I like this idea. Students were given an alternative if they needed to get healthier. An easy one at that. Students who considered themselves to be fit (assuming the nation considered them to be fit, also) need not participate. </p>
<p>You need to be smart enough to get above a 65%. In math. In history. In English. Consider the 30 BMI to be equivalent to a 65%.</p>
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<p>You led it down that path.</p>
<p>As for requiring it, I think that making it a requirement for only certain people is definitely interesting. I would rather see some sort of requirement in fitness for everybody… </p>
<p>But I guess that’s just the future healthcare/fitness professional in me…</p>
<p>If the students knew about this requirement before they enrolled then “caveat emptor.”</p>
<p>The high-BMI students don’t have to lose the weight. All they have to do, according to the article, is take a certain one semester class in fitness. How did all these kids manage to be seniors and not know this?</p>
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<p>Move to strike (everything you said). Bias.</p>
<p>That’s ok, the future lawyer in me tells me to oppose any and all tort reform. Not that I’m interested in that kind of thing, but if people that are interested in that kind of thing are able to do that kind of thing, that means less competition in corporate.</p>
<p>They’re 18, I’ve said this before, I’ll say it again, Lincoln, mind your own ****ing business.</p>
<p>On a tangent, let’s hate on the kid that’s able to see above the nonsense and realize Lincoln needs to mind their own business and think about hiring better profs instead of sticking their nose into people’s lifestyle choices.</p>
<p>Why should this violate ADA? They are not required to loose weight or get any set “result”. All they are required to do is to take a class in something that is considered by the school to be an important “life skill” if they are not proficient at it when they matriculate.</p>
<p>Swarthmore and many other colleges have a swim test as a requirement. Student who can’t pass (or just don’t want to test) are required to take 1 semester of swimming. How is that different?</p>
<p>Would required PE classes benefit all students? Sure. But if the school does not require it for all, why shouldn’t it require it for those who need it most? Some schools require all students to take foreign language. But most will have the requirement satisfied by demonstrating proficiency. Some will accept 3-4 years of FL in HS to satisfy the requirement. Does taking 3-4 years of FL in HS mean the kid is fluent in the language? Absolutely not (just like a good BMI does not necessarily imply physical fitness). But the school decides that it is sufficient, and makes these students exempt. They probably could benefit from taking FL in college, but it becomes their choice to do so.</p>
<p>It is a private school and the students knew about the requirement when they enrolled, so I can’t say it’s wrong.</p>
<p>A requirement to take a class–not lose weight-- is reasonable.<br>
These students aren’t being denied their degrees. They can stay fat and still graduate. They just need to take that required class. </p>
<p>A smart young lady I know (who had a big academic scholarship, graduated at the top of her college class) found out the last semester of senior year that she didn’t have enough credits to graduate. (She had counted credits from an introductory language course–and her college doesn’t allow 1st year language courses to count toward graduation. She didn’t read the fine print in the college catalog. . .She was allowed to “walk” at graduation, but took a community college class that summer to fulfill the requirement. I think this situation is similar. (Every year hs counselors are reminding seniors about missing requirements, and seniors are trying to squeeze in that last computer or art class. . .happens all the time.)</p>
<p>Students who can’t swim or hate studying foreign languages probably avoid applying to colleges with those requirements.</p>
<p>S’s high school just increased its PE requirement–from one year to two years.
Kids participating in school sports can opt out. I predict that next year’s cross country team will be bigger than ever. ;)</p>
<p>As the mother of a former cross country varsity runner at a HS with 50+ each boys and girls in the sport that above increase in runners would be marvelous- those kids are at various levels of ability but they all get exercise every day- more than in a phy ed class.</p>
<p>“All had body mass index (BMI) scores above 30 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services threshold for obesity when they arrived on campus in the fall of 2006, but none have taken college-sanctioned steps to show theyve lost weight or at least tried. Theyre in the historically black universitys first graduating class required to either have a BMI below 30 or to take Fitness for Life, a one semester class that mixes exercise, nutritional instruction and discussion of the risks of obesity.”</p>
<p>Now that I see that it was required when they entered, I don’t think it would violate ADA. I do, however, think that the class should be required of all students, not just those who were overweight when they started college. I think that everyone could benefit from such info, and given the fact that such a high proportion of black people are overweight and have avoidable health problems caused by bad nutrition and lack of exercise, I think that the HBCU would be doing a great service by requiring the class of all students.</p>
<p>Lincoln University is not a private institution. It is a state-related university in Pennsylvania, the same category as Pitt, Temple, and Penn State.</p>