The Citizen

KSG: Preparing leaders for...the gym?

Emilian Papadopoulos, MPP1

Issue date: 4/18/07 Section: Features

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The victorious KSG soccer team

Students at the Kennedy School eat together, study together, name-drop together and, on occasion, even sleep together. But an online poll conducted by The Citizen suggests that when it comes to exercise, they prefer to go solo.

The informal poll found that two-thirds of KSGers exercise at least twice a week. But the most striking part isn’t how much students exercise, but how 75 percent of survey respondents exercise “mostly alone.”

Steven Cohen (MPP1) is one of those students. He says he supports KSG team athletics, but values the gym as a break from KSG’s group-centered environment.

“Working out by myself gives me a chance to reflect on my day, relax my mind, and challenge myself physically,” he says.

Guillermo Rolando (MPA2) is captain of the KSG soccer team, one of the school’s few competitive teams, which reached the semifinals in a tournament of Boston-area graduate schools this fall. Rolando thinks students prefer the gym to team sports because it offers flexibility in their busy schedules. He also says team sports lack visibility and support on campus.

But some survey respondents argued that, unlike college, graduate school is a professional environment where athletics shouldn¹t play a prominent role. “I didn’t come to KSG for its athletics,” wrote one student.

Taufiq Rahim (MPP1) disagrees. While he acknowledges that physical health is an individual¹s own responsibility, he says that KSSG and the school administration should promote physical fitness.

“Exercising helps to foster a greater sense of community,” Rahim says, pointing out that “there are work environments with subsidized gyms, memberships, athletic teams.”

Rolando told The Citizen he would have appreciated more support from the school when he lobbied Harvard University for winter practice space for the soccer team. “I love soccer many people do and during the winter we couldn’t find one single place in the whole university to play,” he says.

With so many students exercising alone, and the majority of them using Harvard gyms, the question of whether gym membership fees should be included in KSG tuition is a topic of ongoing debate. Several years ago, gym fees were removed from term bills after a successful student campaign. However, three-quarters of students who responded to The Citizen poll said they would like to see this decision reversed, and 96 of 119 respondents claimed they would exercise more if gym membership were included in tuition.

KSSG Activities Vice President Margaux McDonald (MPP2) welcomes student suggestions around support for exercise. ”If some KSG students feel that there aren¹t enough fitness options out there,” says McDonald, “perhaps we should be looking into how to better get people the needed information. Our new website could be a great place to start posting some of the Harvard-wide sporting and fitness activities available.”

KSG-ers Run Their Mouths on Fitness

An anonymous online poll conducted by The Citizen asked students for general comments regarding fitness. This is a
sample of what they had to say:

“Compared to the rest of America, the KSG student body (pun intended) is pretty healthy. Walking to/from campus and the Sodexho monopoly no doubt help. But what happens to those
without established exercise routines once they graduate, when they’re driving Hummers and being wined and dined by lobbyists?”

“Oh for crying out loud, include the membership fee in the tuition.We’d all be healthier, happier people. And the people who don¹t use the gym can afford the very small subsidy for happy, healthy classmates.”

“I bike-commute every day. Sure, it isn't a gym membership, but it definitely exercise. Oh, and the amount of stairs I have to freaking climb every day at KSG. I laugh at the puny legs on the people using the stair master at Wellbridge Gym. Bah.”

“I think it's ridiculous that generations of KSGers have had to pay forthe sins of those who came before us and decided that health is optional. Why don’t they just cancel our health insurance and make ‘Dodging Traffic’ a core class?”

“I’d rather my activity fee pay for more gym and less free beer.”

“I really don¹t think an athletic fee should be included in tuition
because it would only motivate people at the margin. There are a lot of people that aren¹t interested in the gym, regardless of
membership costs.”

“People need fitness and sports to relieve stress. School teams that are not competitive would be great fun and provide much needed camaraderie. If such teams/leagues would provide more interaction with other schools - even better!”