College Requires Heavy Students to Take Fitness Class to Graduate

Ashley Villanueva
Blog #8

This article was taken from usatoday.com. Students at Lincoln University are required to take a fitness course if they are overweight in order to graduate. This is a University that is predominantly African American and the officials from that school say they are concerned with the high numbers of obesity and diabetes. The first class this requirement went into affect was for the freshman entering in fall 2006. Students must have their body mass index taken and anyone who is in the range of obese must take this class to get their degree. In this class they do various things to improve their health like walking, aerobics, weight training as well as talk about nutrition, sleep and stress. Many of the seniors are now realizing that they only have the spring left in order to fulfill this requirement and are not very happy with this.
I see this as an example of social control because the University is trying to control the way the students look. They have statistics that say their students are highly over weight compared to other schools and they are trying to change this by requiring this fitness class. It’s not just required for all students but for the ones overweight which singles them out. I think it’s a good idea they are trying to get their students to lead a healthier lifestyle but I don’t believe this is the right way to do it. If they are going to require this class it should be required for all the students or made an option for all the students.