Too Fat to Graduate

[chanel]

More than two dozen seniors at Lincoln University, in Oxford, Pa., are in danger of not being able to graduate this spring -- not because they’re under disciplinary probation or haven’t fulfilled the requirements of their majors, but because they were obese as freshmen.

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 they’ve lost weight or at least tried. They’re in the historically black university’s 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.

Ninety-two students, 19 percent of the freshman class of 484 that entered three years ago, had BMIs of 30 or greater. While most of those students took the class or demonstrated to DeBoy’s department that they had lost weight, about 25 have neither proven they’ve lost weight nor signed up for the class. DeBoy began notifying the students about their unfulfilled requirement earlier this month, spurring an article Wednesday in The Lincolnian, the university’s weekly student newspaper.

News: A Different Kind of Test - Inside Higher Ed

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Good idea?

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Misleading title. In fact they can be as fat as they want, they were told of the requirement to EITHER lose weight or take a class. Nothing nefarious going on at all. They need to either take the class or accept they failed to meet that Colleges REQUIREMENTS for Graduation.

Pretty simple concept.

 

[Skull Pilot]

Since when does higher education include a nutrition course or mandated weight loss?

 

[chanel]

I think it's ridiculous too. Some kind of social experiment. I agree with the sarge that if it's a requirement, they have every right to enforce it. But pulhleeez. What's next? Drug testing? Testing for STD's? If the point is to encourage a healthy lifestyle, then maybe they should ban TV.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

I think it's ridiculous too. Some kind of social experiment. I agree with the sarge that if it's a requirement, they have every right to enforce it. But pulhleeez. What's next? Drug testing? Testing for STD's? If the point is to encourage a healthy lifestyle, then maybe they should ban TV.

They are after all a private College NO ONE is forced to attend that school. They knew the requirements 4 years ago when they CHOSE to attend. Why does my son have to take an English class for a certificate as an electrician? It serves him no good to know how to write Term papers in that field.

He has a learning disability, he can not write those papers with out lots of time and help, something you do not get in college. So he lost his scholarship. It was a requirement of the school.

Just as stupid. BUT each school establishes their criteria and informs new students of those requirements. Those students then get to chose to spend their money there or not. After 4 years they have no leg to stand on if they complain about the requirement.

 

[chanel]

You.re right. My son is complaining about the same requirement for Spanish. But we knew it going in.

I just wonder how many of these kids are going to start throwing up just to get their diploma.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

You.re right. My son is complaining about the same requirement for Spanish. But we knew it going in.

I just wonder how many of these kids are going to start throwing up just to get their diploma.

All they have to do is take the damn class.

 

[Zoom-boing]

Most colleges have some kind of 'fitness' or 'gym' requirement to graduate, don't they? Do people yell about that? They changed the curriculum to graduate and it's a private college. Don't like it? Don't attend that school.

 

[xsited1]

 

[Zoom-boing]

You know how most kids gain the 'freshman 15'? My daughter lost weight last year and it's still off. Not that she was fat but she looks great now. She walks everywhere at school. It's a spread-out kind of campus and she gets a lot of walking in. She also hasn't been sick much at all, even though the flus, a bad respiratory bug and mono were all going around and particularly concentrated in a building she's in all the time. They also bombarded the school with hand sanitizers everywhere.

 

[Charles Stucker]

Most colleges have some kind of 'fitness' or 'gym' requirement to graduate, don't they? Do people yell about that? They changed the curriculum to graduate and it's a private college. Don't like it? Don't attend that school.

A while After WWII a politician noted that young people were not in very good shape (I believe it was Kennedy, but meh) so they began a program to force all college students to take physical education classes.

This is similar, an attempt to educate fat lazy schlubs in the advantages of physical activity and good diet.

The requirement is a class based on a particular shortcoming, sort of like remedial Math or reading classes, nothing more.