As I watched the Student Recreation Center fill up last week, almost to the point of complete saturation, with students motivated to pursue their New Year’s resolutions, two observations became apparent. First, that students, in general, don’t have an aversion to pursuing physical fitness as a goal, and second, that they are more often than not incapable of maintaining a healthy habit of exercise.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise, though. Any passing conversation I’ve ever overheard relating to one’s exercise (or lack thereof) usually includes a few comments along the lines of “I need to be better about that” or “I wish I had enough time to exercise.” Rarely do I ever hear “My health and welfare is in no way a priority to me.”
The University would be well served to include a mandatory physical education class as a requirement for graduation. Though some people may consider a mandatory physical education class ridiculous, not having one would be even more ridiculous. After all, the College of Arts and Sciences has a two-semester foreign language requirement. Though learning a foreign language is important, I cannot fathom how the preservation of one’s body and physical wellness is possibly of lesser importance than learning a foreign language.
Requiring a physical education class would also be a way of demonstrating that exercise should be considered a priority. Right now, our one-credit hour physical activity classes are understood to be on par with other “accessory” classes, like music or fine arts classes. This sends the message that exercise is an accessory—something extra, almost exotic, that we can tack on once in a while when our schedule permits, rather than a crucial daily habit.
By this age, people don’t need to be told that exercise is good for them to understand the fact that it is. Because of this, the physical education requirement could be completed in many different ways (think water aerobics, fencing or even hip-hop dance), with its primary goal being not so much to tell students exercise is important (they already know that), but both to let them discover how refreshing exercising feels and to introduce them to the wide variety of resources the University has to offer them.
More than twice in the past week, I heard passing comments (once referring to an aerobics class and once referring to the entire Rec center itself) along the lines of “If I had only known this was here last semester, I would have come.”
If we were to put in place a mandatory physical education requirement, we certainly wouldn’t be the first university to do so. Bryn Mawr College has a mandatory physical education requirement that is designed, according to their website, to “provide opportunities to help students develop lifelong habits that will enhance the quality of their lives.“ Wellesley College calls their physical education requirement “an essential part of the undergraduate experience.” Students at Harvey Mudd College in California must complete three physical education courses to graduate, including a freshman year aerobics class.
Physical education requirements aren’t confined to “progressive” private liberal arts schools. The University of Georgia also has a one-credit hour physical education class that is mandatory for graduation.
In addition to the great physical benefit we would be providing ourselves, there is copious research to suggest that physical activity is beneficial to one’s mental state as well. An Arizona State University study showed that regular exercise had positive effects on students’ mental states, reducing both anxiety and depression rates. Researchers at Duke found in a 1999 study of 156 adults diagnosed with major depression that 30 minutes of exercise three times a week was more effective than the common antidepressant Zoloft.
By taking the first step in creating a college culture that promotes good health habits, the University could help preemptively combat the effects of poor student health.
If the University were to incorporate a mandatory physical education requirement (which again, could be satisfied by an array of interesting options), there would have to be some exceptions. Intercollegiate athletes, club athletes and those with certain disabilities would be exempt. Other than these certain exemptions, however, an exercise-based class would be useful for every UA student. To satisfy academic “purists,” such classes could even be graded on a pass-fail basis.
There is no reason not to make our physical health a priority on this campus.
Ben Friedman is a sophomore majoring in social entrepreneurship. His column runs weekly on Fridays.
