Physical Fitness and Wellness courses will soon no longer be part of Ball State’s core curriculum

In the fall of 2026, Ball State University will implement a new core curriculum with a main focus on reducing the number of credit hours closer to the state minimum. While the whole core is being re-envisioned, one of the most notable courses projected to be cut is the Personal Fitness and Wellness (PFW) course. 

Under the university’s current curriculum, students are required to take at least one PFW course, with options ranging from walking and jogging to swimming and group fitness, according to Ball State’s website.  

The Personal Fitness and Wellness Program Coordinator, Kendra Zenisek, explained that PFW courses would still remain available to students as an elective course going forward, but enrollment in the course would greatly decrease as a result of no longer being required. Since she started as program coordinator in 2015, Zenisek said the fate of the PFW course has consistently been in question. She has seen a trend of removing fitness courses on college campuses across the United States for at least 20 years. 

“I have been personally fighting the fight for my whole time as PFW program coordinator to keep a variation of PFW as a required course,” she said. “The challenge is that Ball State was the only institution in the state of Indiana for a long time that had it as a requirement.” 

Despite the negative trend, a 2016 study by Alessandro Quartirol and Hotaka Maeda in the “International Journal of Exercise Science” found potential evidence to keep fitness courses required on college campuses. 

The study surveyed 58 predominantly first and second-year college students between the ages of 17 and 23 who were required to take a 15-week lifetime fitness course to graduate. The participants were enrolled in majors other than exercise and sport science and were surveyed at the beginning and end of the semester.  

Although the results of the study did not seem to have increased the levels of physical activity of the participants (Quartirol and Maeda noted that the participants had a high level of physical activity to begin with), it did have an impact on the motivation toward physical activity in a significant manner. 

Specifically, results showed motivation toward physical activity decreased from extrinsic motivators (appearance and fitness), with an increase in intrinsic (wellbeing and enjoyment) motivators. These results point to the perspective of physical activity shifting in students from a social want to a wellbeing need. Quartirol and Maeda concluded that the “study sustains the already existing literature that supports the positive impact of LPF (Lifetime Physical Fitness) courses offered to college students.” 

Nicole Koontz, senior lecturer of exercise science at Ball State, mainly works with graduate students, but said she was concerned when she heard about the university no longer requiring a fitness course for undergraduate students. 

“In my mind, I think it’s really important,” Koontz said. “I feel like for some individuals, maybe athletics isn’t their thing, that’s okay. But I think to be able to get some general knowledge about the benefits of physical activity or physical fitness and just wellness as a whole is really important.” 

Sarah Shore-Beck, a teaching professor of exercise science at Ball State, completed her dissertation research on personal fitness and wellness classes. Her research found that results went beyond regular fitness routines for students. 

“It showed a significant improvement in student grades while they were taking the personal fitness and wellness class,” she said. “That was a huge (result) from just being physically active and walking more and having relationships outside of what you would in your dorms.” 

Shore-Beck sees a great deal of students early in college through teaching as well as clients in her personal training business on the side. One of the larger issues she notices is people setting high expectations about fitness rather than taking smaller steps. She attributed this to a lack of fundamental health and fitness education. 

“A lot of our exercise science students want to be active, but they don’t know how because they can’t be a part of a Division I athletic team,” she said. “You don’t have to be in a gym for an entire hour. Short duration workouts can be just fine.” 

Without a required fitness course on campus going forward, Koontz suggested Ball State could look at a program from the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) called Exercise is Medicine (EIM). The strategy from ACSM is a global health initiative to “make physical activity assessment and promotion a standard in clinical care,” according to the organization’s website. 

The EIM movement has a specific focus on college campuses, with over 200 universities in the United States involved, including Mid-American Conference (MAC) schools Bowling Green, Central Michigan, and Big Ten schools Purdue and Michigan State. 

Zenisek said she modeled a lot of the core elements of the current PFW course on the philosophy of Exercise is Medicine and focusing on exercise as preventive medicine and potentially, in some circumstances, reactive medicine. 

“We do have students that experience things like type two diabetes, heart disease (and) chronic inflammation,” she said. “A lot of those different chronic disease issues and exercise can be a very beneficial tool.” 

Educating students on the benefits of something as simple as reaching a certain number of steps per day — the Mayo Clinic recommends 8,000-10,000 steps per day for adults — and encouraging them to do so could be a positive force in bettering the overall health of college students. 

A systematic review and meta-analysis published in JAMA Network Open in December 2024 found that higher daily step counts were “associated with fewer depressive symptoms in the general adult population.”  

The review was completed by a team from Castilla-La Mancha University and led by Estela Jiménez-López. It analyzed 33 observational studies with more than 96,000 adults, finding that those who achieved a step count of 7,000 or higher were associated with a lower risk of depression. 

“It’s not just a physical benefit that students get from engaging in exercise,” Zenisek said. “It’s the social benefit of meeting students from different majors, finding something or someone that they would have never had an opportunity to engage with.” 

In lieu of the required PFW course, Koontz recommended the Healthy Lifestyles Center on campus for students looking to change their fitness and eating routines. The center, located in the Health Professions Building, aims to help students and members of the Muncie community enhance their health and wellbeing at no cost.  

Participants can work with the Healthy Lifestyles Center to develop a customized plan around a wide variety of health goals like managing stress, adopting healthier habits and striving for overall wellbeing, according to its website. 

Contact the Ball State Daily News via email at editor@bsudailynews.com.