Opportunities for physical fitness and athleticism abound on college campuses, as anyone who has had to sit through a sibling’s harrowing tales of intramural water polo playoffs can tell you. But should students be required to engage in campus athletics to graduate? Lincoln University, a historically black college in Pennsylvania, is saying yes, at least for obese students.

Starting in 2006, incoming freshmen at Lincoln University were weighed and measured and told their Body Mass Index, or BMI, score. Students with a BMI over 30, which the World Health Organization designates as obese, were told they’d need to take a one-credit physical fitness course to graduate. Those students are now entering their final year of college, and of those 92 students who were given that requirement, 80 have not yet completed it. True to its word, Lincoln University has sent these 80 students e-mail messages saying that unless they complete the class or “test out” by spring semester (either by “earning” a BMI below 30 or passing a sports course) they will not be allowed to receive degrees they have otherwise earned.

While promoting healthy lifestyles is increasingly becoming a priority for colleges, Lincoln’s practice goes much further than other schools’. Recent media attention has raised legal questions, ranging from concerns about privacy (weighing all freshmen then making this potentially sensitive information public, or at least easily guessed, based on who has to take the fitness class) to concerns about discrimination (obese students may have underlying health issues), and the university’s legal counsel is looking into whether the policy should be continued. Other concerns are also being voiced, namely related to the effectiveness of using BMI to determine risk for health issues, and the fairness of only making students above a certain BMI take a fitness course.

The class is meant to make students aware of the health risks that have been traditionally associated with obesity, but there’s a long-standing contention that BMI is not an accurate measure of obesity or of health risk. Most people have anecdotal experience that easily attests to this—athletes pushing the obesity mark or tiny people subsisting entirely on fast food. Certainly, students of all weights engage in less healthy aspects of the college lifestyle, and could probably benefit from information on healthy eating and exercise. This leaves many people wondering, why the emphasis on BMI? Why not make the course a requirement for everyone, or not make it a requirement for anyone at all? And why make this course a graduation requirement, rather than simply a recommendation?

So what do you think? Should colleges make health education a graduation requirement for students? Is Lincoln University’s practice an appropriate form of health intervention?

Posted: under College Classes, College Life.
Tags: College Classes, College Life, Food/Cooking, Sports

Comments (0) Nov 20 2009

Few foods have become as big a staple in college students’ diets as ramen noodles. They’re easy enough to make where even the most kitchen-shy college student can heat up a bag and enjoy them while studying for finals or hanging out with friends and lamenting about how they can’t afford to order pizza. They’re cheap - if you buy in bulk, you could score yours for 10 cents a pack. And they’ve become a part of the college culture. (Just ask “Stuff College People Like.”)

But that doesn’t mean they have to be boring. Sure, you may enjoy the simplicity of the instant noodles’ traditional flavors: beef, chicken and shrimp. One New York chef, however, has made a name for himself serving up ramen at his East Village restaurant. The dishes David Chang creates are made with homemade noodles, something we don’t expect you to try in your dorm room, but it’s the flavors and toppings that make his versions stand out - meat that simmers for hours, dried fish and pork, seasoned in a broth that makes the noodles more like a hearty soup. Chang’s new book, Momofuku, gives away his secrets to making the fancy ramen and other dishes that sound delicious but probably aren’t as straightforward to put together, like kimchi stew with rice cakes and shredded pork.

So what can you do to spice up your own campus version? You can play with toppings first. If you’re a cheese fiend, try some shredded cheddar next time you’re about to dive into that bowl of hot chicken-flavored ramen. Drizzle some hot sauce onto your noodles if you like them with a bit of a kick. Or if you’re somewhat ambitious, cook up your own vegetables to supplement the crunchy flakes that come in the packages.

You don’t need to be a master chef to make do with the things that are probably already in your room or apartment, or to make those college staples like ramen instant noodles more interesting and appetizing. Brows through our site for ideas on not only college cooking and what should be on your grocery list, but eating on a budget. While you probably have more options at college than anywhere else in terms of finding cheap food options, it could be even less expensive to buy things on your own and prepare them the old-fashioned way. If you have access to a kitchen, stock up on the basics like rice and pasta and frozen vegetables and you could be coming up with your own easy (budget) recipes on a regular basis. If you’re living in a dorm but have access to a microwave, by all means pick up that ramen.

Posted: under Food/Cooking, Just for Fun.
Tags: cooking, food, Food/Cooking

Comments (0) Nov 04 2009

Do you think you could get tricked into eating more healthy foods on campus? A recent article in the Boston Globe describes the strategies being taken by some schools in Massachusetts to get their students eating more nutritious meals and smaller portions, and it has required some sneakiness.

Most of you have probably heard of the “freshman 15,” the 15 (or more) pounds that you’re at risk of putting on that first year away in college when you’re making your own decisions on what to eat. According to the Globe and the Nutrition Journal, recent studies have shown that at least 1 in 4 college freshmen gain an average of 10 pounds in their first semester alone. (That’d make it more like the “freshman 20.”) Data like that and an increased awareness of obesity among young people has led schools like Wellesley College, Tufts University, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst to take matters into their own hands by shrinking plate sizes and sneaking veggies onto students’ plates. And they’re not publicizing their methods, as anecdotal evidence has shown that if students are given a choice in whether to eat healthy or not, they’ll usually go for the burger and fries.

Elsewhere, schools are doing things like offering miniatures of popular food items (sliders vs. burgers) and substituting fattening ingredients for more low-calories options. Getting students to eat healthy and exercise portion control is made even tougher in cafeterias, where they can often make return trips for second and third helpings with no one there to stop them. “Whatever restraining influences parents might have had when the teenagers were at home are unshackled when kids go off to college,’’ Dr. David Ludwig, director of the Optimal Weight for Life program at Children’s Hospital Boston said in the Boston Globe article.

If you’re particularly worried about the choices you’ve been making when eating (or drinking), consider burning off some of those calories. Try to make time for a club sport or a couple hours a week at your schools’ gym. Your tuition fees are already paying for your privileges to use their facilities, so you may as well visit them once in a while. And check out our site for options on healthy eating and eating on a budget, another difficult hurdle when you’re looking not to order pizza for the third night in a row.

Posted: under College Culture, Food/Cooking, Just for Fun.
Tags: College Culture, cooking, food, Food/Cooking, Just for Fun

Comments (0) Oct 29 2009

Briana G. wants to create a “healthy Twinkie.” While completing an Associate’s degree in Baking and Pastry Arts, she became concerned about America’s obesity epidemic and realized she wanted to learn to craft more forgiving sweets. To help her complete a degree in Food Science and Dietetics at Colorado State University, Scholarships.com has named Briana the 2009 recipient of the annual $1,000 College Culinary Arts Scholarship.

Scholarships.com has been awarding Area of Study College Scholarships since summer 2008 to help students like Briana meet their college and career goals. The competition grants a $1,000 scholarship each month to a high school senior or undergraduate student planning to pursue a career in one of thirteen areas of study, including Culinary Arts.

“These students have such creative ideas and reasons for choosing a particular major and, through this program, we are able to help them share these ideas and aspirations,” said Kevin Ladd, Vice President for Scholarships.com. “The Area of Study College Scholarships help students pay for college and also challenge them to really think about why they want to study a given subject or go into a particular field.”

Applicants are asked to compose essays describing what influenced their career choices. In her submission, Briana described reconciling her desire to make “delicious, eye-catching desserts” with her growing awareness of how poor diets contribute to obesity. Her goal now it to make healthy version of the “sweet treats that Americans love.”

The Scholarships.com Area of Study Scholarships are open to all U.S. citizens who will be attending college in the fall of 2009, regardless of age, test scores or grade point average. To apply for the Scholarships.com Area of Study College Scholarships, students can visit www.scholarships.com, conduct a free college scholarship search and complete an online scholarship application.

A complete list of Area of Study scholarship winners, as well as their winning essays is available on our Student Winners page.

Posted: under Financial Aid, Food/Cooking, Scholarships.
Tags: Area of Study Scholarships, cooking, culinary arts scholarship, food, Food/Cooking, high school student scholarships, high school students, Scholarships, undergraduate scholarships, undergraduate students

Comments (0) Sep 09 2009

The rising cost of college rates has been a headache for families across the nation. However, college tuition is not the only expense expected to increase. Due in part to the high costs of gas, the price of food transportation—and therefore food—has been on the rise. Like consumers, campuses have to deal with the effects that food costs have had on meal plans.

If you’re one of the many dorm-residing students subscribing to an on-campus cafeteria plan, especially one with a buffet-style layout,  you can imagine how quickly prices could escalate. Numerous students make it a habit to fill their trays with one of everything…just in case. The quantity of wasted, expensive food has college representatives worried that a  hike in cafeteria prices is inevitable.

Colleges are doing what they can to minimize expected charges, but pricing continues to be a problem. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, some schools have taken to skimping on the amount of ingredients used in each dish while others have managed to save by eliminated cafeteria trays. In an interview with Mr. Simon of Western Washington University, it was reported that, “Western Washington dining halls observed a 34-percent reduction in waste during one week last month when the institution went trayless.”

For students who aren’t fond of dorm food as is, the idea of having to save money to afford it is extremely frustrating. Unfortunately, many students see few alternatives. Unless they can stuff all groceries into a portable, shared fridge, it’s just one more pain to deal with.

Posted: under College Costs, College Culture, College News, Food/Cooking.
Tags: cooking, food, Food/Cooking

Comments (0) May 06 2008