Shirley Reekie, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of Kinesiology

If you knew you could be prescribed something that could prevent and treat dozens of diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity, with no bad side effects and many good ones, wouldn’t you want to get your hands on this miracle drug? This is the message of http://exerciseismedicine.org/ a physician-run campaign to urge people to take regular exercise.  Yes, exercise is that “medicine.”

But perhaps you think that finding a time and place to exercise is difficult. Did you know you could achieve all of these benefits right here, on the San José State campus, by taking a range of high quality physical activity classes, arranged around your schedule?

Having access to these classes sure matters to most SJSU students who take a physical activity class in the Department of Kinesiology each semester.  Nearly 2000 have already signed a petition to keep these classes available to all students.  Yes!  There is a possibility that all of these classes may be cut in a perhaps not very well thought through cost-cutting proposal.  If you think this is important, join the thousands who have already signed the petition at: https://www.change.org/petitions/save-the-sjsu-physical-activity-program

These days, almost all other universities (including all CSUs) offer physical activity classes to their students and many others require it, as do we.  For example, see this from Harvard University: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/staying-active/staying-active-full-story/ You might also be interested to know that MIT and many other schools (including our own sister CSU school, Cal Maritime) require all students to be swimmers before they graduate: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/05/08/time_to_sink_or_graduate/?page=full And at CalTech, there’s a range of activity courses and three activity classes are required: http://catalog.caltech.edu/courses/listing/pe.html

And yet we have these rumors on campus that cutting out all physical activity classes is being considered as a way to save money! With all that we know about the scientific evidence on the health benefits of regular physical activity (see the US Surgeon General’s Report at http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/initiatives/healthy-fit-nation/index.html) this seems to be short sighted and likely to cost the university even more in the long term, with increased visits to the Student Health Center and to Counseling Services.  By the way, staff in both these centers are actively supporting the campaign to keep physical activity classes available for our students. They get it! So do many international students who tell me that it was in these classes that they made their first American friends and began to feel “at home.”

In addition to the health benefits of physical activity classes, we know from student comments that these classes are: “where I met my girlfriend,” “where I meet students from other majors,” “why I get up in the morning,” “what keeps my stress under control,” “the best classes I ever took,” or simply “the place on campus where I have fun.”

If this sounds like something you’ve said, please add your voice to the many who have already spoken, at: https://www.change.org/petitions/save-the-sjsu-physical-activity-program

After all, isn’t physical activity really at the heart of your education, in so many ways?