My Alma Mater ACE’d It!
This story is the third of three about the essential role sports has played throughout my life. The first focused on how sports shaped who I am and how playing small college basketball at MIT changed my life. The second expanded the circle to my teammates and coaches who made remarkable experiences possible. The third is a view through the public health lens of active living that connects individual experiences to the barriers and opportunities within one’s community.
Swim 100 yards for that degree! In the fall of 1967, I arrived in Boston and Cambridge to start freshman year as an eager, naive kid from Indiana. MIT academics proved harder than expected. But there was one graduation requirement I could complete in the first month. Since my mother was an excellent swim teacher, I was confident I could pass the “swim test” at the Alumni Pool. I swam the four laps without touching the bottom or sides and passed. MIT students needed to swim 100 yards to graduate. Fifty-nine years later, they still do. (Non-swimmers can pass by taking a beginner’s swim class.)
At a prestigious university known for intellectual rigor, the swim test requirement might seem curious, even quaint. It dates back to the 1940s when drowning-related deaths during WW II raised concern about basic water safety and survival skills. MIT’s philosophy has remained consistent: swimming is a life skill everyone should have that enables students to participate in sailing, kayaking, and other activities on or around water without fear.
Many universities have dropped the swim test. But maintaining it reflects an abiding culture at MIT. Do you want high-level intellectual performance? Then follow the ancient Greeks’ example of training the body, mind, and spirit together. Our bodies are made to move. A sedentary life is a risky life that doesn’t just jeopardize our physical health, but impacts intellectual achievement and emotional development.
Active living is a way of life. Not a formal exercise program, active living provides a framework for weaving enjoyable physical activity into the fabric of our daily lives. Working out at the health club or the YMCA is great for some. But exercise is merely one of many ways to get our daily dose of physical activity. Playing sports, gardening, dancing, activity on the job, household chores, active transportation such as walking and biking to work or school…active living embraces them all! Many health and fitness books focus solely on individual behavior change factors like motivation. But success in getting and staying active is tightly linked to a critical number too often left out of the equation — our ZIP codes! We do not participate in physical activity or play sports in a vacuum. Our individual success is tightly linked to our communities, their barriers and opportunities.
An Active Community Environment (ACE) is a place where people of all ages and abilities can easily walk, bike, and engage in other recreational activities. An ACE follows an essential principle of public health: make the healthy choice the easy choice. Is it safe in your neighborhood to take a walk after dinner? Sidewalks and bike lanes in good repair? Schools providing quality physical education? Community youth and adult sports programs that are affordable? Growing research confirms common sense: people who live in activity-friendly neighborhoods are more likely to get out and move. Those using nearby parks and open spaces are three times more likely to achieve recommended levels of physical activity than non-users.
MIT ACE’d It! I’m proud to say my alma mater is an active community environment. Navigating the campus is easy on foot with plenty of bike racks for those preferring to pedal. The essence of the Everyday Athlete begins with participation in physical activity. Having so many options makes it easier: high-quality physical education classes, a vigorous intramural program, club sports, and competitive intercollegiate sports. There are 33 varsity sports teams (16 men,15 women), 30 club team sports, and 20 intramural programs. Regardless of skill level, there are choices! Access is not limited to current students, faculty, and alumni. Employees of nearby companies can sign up at reasonable monthly rates. Expanding community access promotes active living.
I admit MIT is a special place, an elite university in a big city. Do the same strategies apply to other places like a rural community in eastern Oregon? Very different communities require different strategies. But key public health principles abide:
1. Reduce barriers. Undergraduate tuition is $66,720 per year, a potential financial barrier to admission and participation for students in lower income families. But those with family incomes less than $200,000 attend tuition free. Less than $100,000? Full coverage of tuition, housing, dining, books, and personal expenses. 88% of MIT undergraduates leave carrying a diploma but not lugging around any student debt.
2. Increase opportunities. The sheer number of programs and facilities promotes active living as a way of life. The renovated Alumni Pool where I swam my 100 yards is still busy. But the Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center that opened in 2002 has state-of-the-art facilities including an Olympic-quality pool and diving area. Great facilities make that healthy choice of activity the easy choice.
3. Create a supportive culture. Long before public health experts called it “active living,” MIT has cultivated a culture and community that supports physical activity participation. “DAPER” is the perfect name: Department of Athletics, Physical Education, and Recreation. It serves 16,000 members with nearly 900,000 individual visits each year. 25% of all undergraduate students participate in at least one intramural sport each year. Being active is the norm not the exception.
From that first dip in Alumni Pool through a three-year varsity basketball career, I am so grateful for my teammates and coaches who made life-changing experiences possible. I salute my alma mater for providing us so many opportunities to follow the path of active living.
