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BY APOLLINE BERTY

In print | September 13, 2007

As a result of some students not graduating because of a failure to complete their PE requirements, the entire Dean’s Office recently decided that starting with the class of 2011, students who fail to complete their physical education requirements by the end of sophomore year will neither be able to pre-register for courses nor be able to participate in the spring housing lottery.

“Although policy has not changed, the new consequences which currently apply only to the class of 2011 are not mentioned on the Academic Advising and Support Web site,” said Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Garikai Campbell ’90.

Although the new consequences that have been attached to the policy only apply to the Class of 2011, this fact has not been explicitly stated on the Academic Advising and Support Web site.

“We could’ve done a better job of saying to everybody, being clear and articulate about how the other classes were affected and how it was different from how the incoming class was affected,” Campbell said.

Students had always been highly persuaded to complete their PE requirements by the end of their sophomore year, but now they are obligated to do so in the face of these new consequences. According to Campbell, however, these measures were added for the benefit of the students to ensure that they do not run into problems in their senior year and to encourage them to take part in the benefits of physical education.

“The most important thing is that this is not intended to be some draconian measure,” Campbell said. “It’s meant in two ways; first to be protective, it is a requirement that must be done by the time one graduates and we would like to protect folks from finding themselves in a jam — a jam that ultimately puts enormous strain on PE instructors, the student and potentially on families preparing to come see their son, daughter, nephew, niece, etc. graduate.”

“Trying to do all the PE credits senior year is very hard,” Housing Coordinator Liz Derickson ’01 said.

Campbell believes that lack of completion of the PE credits will be a “rare occurrence.” The consequences of not completing four PE credits by the end of sophomore year will now include being placed on hold from pre-registration and prevented from participating in the spring housing lottery, which would likely lead non-compliant students to receive poor housing relative to their class year.

Additionally, students who do not complete their PE credits by the end of sophomore year will then have to meet with Campbell to develop a plan for making sure that the requirement is fulfilled. This is also true for students of the classes of 2010 and 2009, who will also have to meet with Dean Campbell to discuss their plan for fulfilling the PE requirement, though “nobody in classes of 2010 and 2009 will have to worry about the precise consequences that the 2011s would face,” Campbell said.

“The consequences seem harsh but I think their idea is good,” Jake Ban ’10 said.

Some freshmen do not seem particularly concerned with the new measures, viewing them positively as a motivation to complete the units in time, and as a way to escape work for a little while.

“I actually don’t mind too much, because I wouldn’t do it unless I was pushed into it,” Rhiannan Thomas ‘11 said. "If I do it now, I won’t have to do it junior and senior year."

Thomas also mentioned that though she didn’t mind having to do the credits within two years, albeit that she was somewhat bothered by the fact that older students had a different system. Furthermore, she said that this new rule for the class of 2011 may in fact ease the transition to a new system, as it would prevent the over-enrollment of PE classes with sophomores and juniors scrambling to complete their credits.

Though some may argue that being forced to take PE credits in only two

years might get in the way of taking certain classes, Thomas believed that the PE classes would probably be beneficial to studying. “PE as a whole is a pretty good thing; even though it takes away from studying, it ends up making your studying more efficient.”

“For those students who are in that situation where they are really trying but can’t find the course they want, I can appreciate the difficulty … but hopefully that will only happen once out of four semesters. This seems the best we can do given all the restraints,” Campbell said.

Moreover, Campbell added that there are about 35 PE classes offered at various times throughout the day, as well as clubs that also satisfy the credits.

“I’m not a student trying to sign up for these classes, but I think that the athletic department has done a pretty terrific job in having a large number of offerings spread out throughout the day,” Campbell said.

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