A mandatory physical exercise course from the computer science curriculum at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) has been removed following uproar from the students that began in September 2011.
Computer science students were required to attend mandatory gym time for about one hour every week, as part of their program’s requirements.
With no instruction given during the class, students signed their names on an attendance sheet and an instructor verified they attended and stayed for the hour, according to faculty and students.
The physical education requirement was added to the computer science curriculum roughly five years ago, starting with first-year students, according to Brian Pitcock, associate dean of the School of Computing and Academic Studies at BCIT.
The idea was borrowed from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, which had a similar program in place for its computer science students, Pitcock said.
“We thought that this would be a good idea, something that would help our students,” said Pitcock. “If we can get them out of the lab for an hour a week, this will help them with both their physical and their mental health.”
But the school’s policy made students feel like they were being treated like children, said Marwan Marwan, computer science chair for BCIT’s student union.
“[At BCIT], there are a lot of people either transition[ing] into careers or adults going back to school,” said Marwan. “Everyone’s mature and already involved in life.”
Marwan said for students already taking seven courses per semester, this gym time could be better spent on schoolwork.
“The excuse was this was really good for our health, but when you turn around and walk down the hallway, there’s probably vending machines and junk food all over the place.”
Pitcock said at first, the idea was well received, which prompted the polytechnic institute to extend the requirement to all four terms of the program.
He said he began the process to remove the requirement after students voiced their disapproval about a year ago, and circulated a petition requesting the mandatory gym class be dropped.
Pitcock called the gym class “a noble experiment that just didn’t quite work out.”
“We were trying to give our students something extra as a bit of an advantage,” he said. “But we decided that maybe we were a little bit out of line and this isn’t what the modern student wants.”
In May, the department voted to eliminate the requirement, but Marwan said he was unaware of this until he was contacted by the Charlatan.
“It’s been an uphill battle with the school. I’m happy to hear that it’s gone,” he said.
Carleton University Student’s Association (CUSA) computer science councillor Justin Campbell said that gym time should not be a requirement even if it seems to be beneficial.
“This program [at BCIT] imposes an excessive and unrelated requirement on students based on discriminatory factors. It’s based on a stereotype; an administrators’ point of view,” said Campbell.
He said many computer science students he knows are in relatively good health.
“It makes the assumption that somehow we can’t take care of ourselves. It’s lifestyle education, and completely out of place.”
Douglas Howe, Carleton’s director of computer science, said there is no chance Carleton would ever adopt this kind of program requirement.
“In my eight years as director, the topic of mandatory physical education courses has never come up,” he said.
“It is not part of our mission to force students to work on their lifestyle.”
