All Students Required to Play Sport to Graduate

Sofia Barassi Sports Editor

SNHU staff, administrators, and health and wellness experts teamed up and made a cohesive decision that all SNHU on-campus students will be required to play a sport in order to graduate starting Fall 2021.

This stems from research based on the heart health of adolescents heading towards adulthood, published by Jennifer Arts, Maria Fernandez and Ingred Lofgren. Their research shows that nearly 33% of young people are obese which originates from an unhealthy lifestyle and diet.

“Coronary heart disease (CHD)5 risk in young adults aged 18–24 is underestimated despite the high prevalence of CHD risk factors (1–4) and early signs of atherosclerosis in this age group (5, 6),” said Arts, Fernandez and Lofgren.

SNHU’s Health and Wellness team has growing concerns about this statistic which led them to collaborate on solutions as to how SNHU can do its part to lower these numbers.

“More than half of young adults have at least [one] CHD risk factor, and this greatly increases lifetime heart disease risk (16)...[emphasizing] primordial prevention beginning in childhood and adolescence (16),” said Arts, Fernandez and Lofgren.

On-campus students will now be required to play at least one sport for an accumulated total of 100 hours during their time at SNHU. The hours played will be signed off by staff attending events. This requirement needs to be completed in order to receive their degree.

The activities that qualify for these hours include all fitness classes, the SNHU gym, and participation in intramural sports, club sports and NCAA DII sports. When engaging

in these activities, each student’s identification card will be swiped and the hours will be logged.

Exceptions will be made for people who are unable to be physically active, which will be replaced with other requirements decided by the Wellness Center. More information will be located on my.snhu in the coming weeks to lay out more details, rules and compliances.

Be sure to check out Arts, Ferandez and Lofgren’s article, Coronary heart disease risk factors in college students, which can be located at https://doi. org/10.3945/an.113.005447.

SNHU Penmen Stadium.

(image courtesy: SNHU)