Developing the Student Body

There are too many fat students at Harvard. These students can be seen just about everywhere. They are talented individuals with brilliant futures awaiting them once they graduate. They are well-educated, able to tackle just about any problem that awaits them in the real world--except maybe problems requiring temperance and moderation. The definition of fat should not just be limited to those who are too big for their britches, but also those who could simply use some toning or trimming.

We are all too familiar with the causes: all you can eat meals from Harvard Dining Services, pizza places and fast food joints that will deliver right to our rooms at virtually any time of day. This temptation to overindulge is compounded by intense work-loads which allow little time for that all-important workout. These factors pose real threats for students who lack wills strong enough to resist such pervasive temptation and to actively overcome the effects of excessive consumption. We must learn to recognize and solve these problems, since they will certainly persist throughout our lives.

Harvard is supposed to be an educational institution. Isn't it time that the university started to realize that its young students are more than mere intellectual entities?

Students need to learn how to improve their bodies while they improve their minds. In the words of the progressive thinker John Dewey, "there is an impossibility of achieving intelligence through any system that does not use the body to teach the mind and the mind to teach the body."

There are two clear ways that the University should immediately attack this pressing issue. First, a mandatory physical education program should be introduced. This activity should consist of at least four semesters of physical training. And, second, the University should require a brief series of nutrition seminars.

Those of us who have spent long, enjoyable hours running along the Charles at dawn or playing intramural sports with our friends know just how valuable an experience physical education can be. And such physical activity does much more than help student to slim their flabby bodies and control their bodily desires.

The discipline achieved through repeated hard physical workouts is applicable to just about every learning process. As Baird Professor of Science Dudley R. Herschbach points out to all of his Chemistry 10 students, the real importance of taking his course and many others is to learn certain methods which will prove useful throughout one's life. As he makes clear, if an individual spends three months running everyday, or doing chemistry by analogy, he or she improves in ways that last a lifetime.

Such an emphasis on physical education clearly does not mean that 6400 students must descend on the Charles every morning for a 10-mile jog to the beat of cadences. Instead, students should be required to spend at least half their time at Harvard doing some sort of approved sport or physical activity of their own choosing.

Possibilities for physical education include the wide variety of intramurals and varsity sports the University already offers. Other options include club sports like martial arts, boxing and dance. Students could also submit their own independent physical study program. Four hours a week spent rowing, jogging, swimming or any combination of these would be an excellent way to meet the requirement.

And such a significant proposal would not be new to the Ivy League. Columbia University already has a two-semester physical education requirement. Students spend several hours a week at a chosen physical activity. Also, Columbia, like Princeton, requires all students to take a swim test before graduation.

In order to complement this physical training, students must also be instructed about nutrition. The University has already gone to pains to provide nutritious meals for students. Information is readily available to students from Harvard Dining Services' Nutrition Consultant. This service can also be used to discuss individual concerns students may have about nutrition and dieting. However, students would profit from a couple seminars or perhaps just simple explanation of what information exactly is available.

Too many people in the Harvard community are eating themselves into an early grave. They must be apprised of the potential consequences of their actions and given alternatives which would help them avert self-destruction.

There is certainly nothing wrong with carrying more baggage than is required. Many students enjoy the extra cushioning--and the knowledge that starvation would be an extremely long process.

Sadly, many students do want to lose weight and improve their bodies, but simply do not know how. We could all use some guidance towards this lifetime pursuit--a pursuit which surely merits as much attention as expository writing. If Harvard truly values its role as an educational institution, then it must regard its students as more than mere brains.