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Pennsylvania's Lincoln University has instituted a requirement that first-year students who arrive on campus with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher must either lower their BMI below 30 or take a one-unit course called "Fitness for Life" in order to graduate.
The Chronicle of Higher Education provides some details on the university's reasoning:
The point is to keep students healthy, says James L. DeBoy, chair of Lincoln's department of health, physical education, and recreation. All Lincoln students have long been required to pass a two-credit course called "Dimensions of Wellness," which covers array of subjects, such as alcohol, drugs, nutrition, and sexual health.
While revising the department's curriculum in 2006, however, Mr. DeBoy and his colleagues concluded that the university should do more to help students become more physically fit. The result was a course designed for students who are overweight. It includes walking, Pilates exercises, and fitness games.
Needless to say, there's been an uproar on the campus of the historically black university and throughout the blogosphere. The student newspaper, The Lincolnian, reported students' reactions. From sophomore Lousie Kaddie:
"It's not up to Lincoln to tell me how much my BMI should be. I came here to get a degree and that's what the administration should be concerned with."
In the comments on the Lincolnian article, members of the community ask a number of questions, including:
- Why is the university focusing solely on BMI and physical education, when its cafeteria could be offering better-quality, fresher, organic food to its students?
- Does the university really want to lose bright, motivated students and prospective students who happen to have a BMI of 30 or higher?
- Why only target those who are declared obese based on the BMI, which is already a controversial way of measuring health?
- Why make high-BMI students pay for an extra credit hour, when students with a lower BMI do not have to do so?
- Why is the college not offering the same intervention to students with eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia?
- Is the college opening itself up to discrimination suits?
One commenter, Catta, noted a sad irony:
Finally, even cursory research into the history of the BMI shows its distasteful links to Victorian-era social darwinism. I am sure people know the tenets of this odious theory, and that they can then understand why I find it ironic that a university with a predominantly African American student body would endorse and use BMI to assess its students' worth.
One commenter on the Chronicle piece who appears to be a Lincoln student sees the requirement as drawing on stereotypes of African-American women:
[T]his is purely targeting blacks because of the stereotyped heavy, large-bottomed women. You want people to be fit--give them free health club memberships with FREE personal trainers. And look at the swill you are serving in the dorms--a carb-addict's dream.
Another Chronicle commenter thinks class is also a consideration:
Lincoln University doesn't want a lot of graduates who look lower class. Upper class people tend to be thinner.
Yet another commenter sees the policy as completely reasonable:
Lincoln's policy promotes good health and is not onerous. It is also fair, so long as freshmen know about it before matriculating. Obesity is associated with many health risks, and people habitually underestimate their caloric intake while overestimating their level of exercise. A mandatory course targets those at greatest risk. A BMI of 30 is also pretty high, except for the unusually well-muscled. A physical exam could distinguish the healthy from the unhealthy. In the worst case, failing the standard compels taking only a 1-credit hour course, not expulsion. In this respect, the course is akin to an incidental area requirement.
Yes, Lincoln could choose to tie alcohol, tobacco, or illicit drug use to graduation. But it chooses to do something about obesity. There is nothing inherently hypocritical in this choice, or in choosing to administer one policy instead of a gamut.
Jezebel published a brief item on the requirement, which also elicited a range of comments, including one from cand86, who asked, "[H]aven't we already proven that BMI is BULLSHIT?" Others took the conversation in an interesting direction about how P.E. during K-12 could dissuade people from exercising later in life.
kavitabk linked to a recent critique of BMI by State University of New York Professor Emeritus Theo Pavlidis and added,
BMI is based on a "normal curve" that is derived from the range of weights found in French and Scottish (male, of course) soldiers (who were CONSCRIPTED--i.e. not exactly well-fed) in the 1830s. So it's a good measure
