Before entering college, many students are expected to take entrance exams in English, a foreign language and math. These tests are given to see the class level students should be in and are common among universities. What if scholarly knowledge was not the only thing being tested upon entering college? Now, your body mass index is up for being measured and indicating whether you have to take extra classes throughout your college career. This new rule unfairly gives certain students an extra class that can keep them from graduating if not completed.
According to The New York Times, more than 20 students at Lincoln University, a historically black college in rural Pennsylvania, are in jeopardy of not receiving diplomas due to a Body Mass Index of 30 and over. Those students must take a designated one-credit fitness class to graduate. The first class to fall under this rule is due to graduate this spring, and 15 percent of those students whose BMI was judged to be over the limit back in 2006 must have taken “HPR 103 Fitness Walking/Conditioning” in order to receive their bachelor’s degrees. Some 24 seniors are yet to take the class, with one semester to go.
A number of professors and students have commented on this rather discriminatory requirement. “What’s the point of this? What does my BMI have to do with my academic outcome?” Dionard Henderson, a first-year student, asked. This brings up the question of how accurate a BMI number is in regards to being called overweight or obese. In fact, the method of calculating “a healthy weight” came around during the late 1990s in an effort to make sure that doctors, researchers and other health-related agents were on the same page. With this universal number, dietitians have more successfully told their patients that they are overweight, without knowing how accurate the diagnosis is. Further, BMI does not take age, gender or muscle mass into account. Nor does it distinguish between lean body mass and fat mass. As a result, some people, such as heavily-muscled athletes, may have a high BMI even though they do not have a high percentage of body fat. Numerous BMI charts and graphs are deliberately placed in school nurses’ offices in order to aid students in maintaining a healthy weight, only to be taken lightly by the majority of those students.
Why should a requirement of such pre-collegiate nature be implemented in a university? A bigger issue is the fact that only students who have “failed” their BMI test must take this special one-credit course, a fitness class that meets three times a week. If a student who has been deemed overweight must take this course, so should any other student attending the institution. Preparing the student for the future is a respectable goal, however, the entirety of the student body should be required to attend “wellness” classes, regardless of current weight. A large number of people who were slender in their college years have gained weight once they started a family or took a physically inactive job. If the school is to require only overweight students to take a fitness course, it would not only be discriminatory and unfair to students, but to the rest of the college population that is exposed to the same physical hazards later in life.
Further, a special fitness class such as the one described above could conflict with other more important college courses. A school such as Lincoln University would err in its ways as it could bar a number of intelligent, potentially successful people from receiving degrees. A BMI number has no relation to such scholarly matters, and thus has the ability to prevent students from entering fields ranging from publishing to, ironically, health.
While some may consider this course useful and beneficial, Lincoln University is a public school, therefore it should be regulated by state government and should not be allowed to fulfill its own agendas indiscriminately. “I don’t necessarily agree with the BMI being a requirement,” said Yvonne Hilton, a professor in the health, physical education and recreation department. “It is understood that obesity in America is growing fast, but maybe there should have been a different approach in informing the students about their health and building their awareness.”
The biggest issue remains the discriminatory nature of this rule. While Columbia, Dartmouth and Cornell still retain their antiquated swimming tests, Lincoln University goes too far. Students enroll in college for its educational purpose, and the administrators of such an institution should be concerned with just that. A given person may still change their life after college, and a class titled “HPR 103 Fitness Walking/Conditioning” would not be able to significantly alter that.
Ultimately, this foolish requirement will do nothing but make life harder for people who fall under the “overweight” category according to an index made to simplify relations between certain health-involved agents. No one should be singled out due to a high BMI number, especially when a simple college requirement becomes a matter of discrimination. If one student is obligated to take the course, then so should the rest of the student population. Many brilliant people have come out of institutions of higher education, and it would have been a shame if they were held back by a physical index.
Course unfit for curriculum
Published: Sunday, November 29, 2009
Updated: Sunday, November 29, 2009
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