Wisconsin’s reputation as the most obese state in the union might be reinforced by the inability of UW students to gain academic credit for sweating it out at the gym. Not one of the 120 credits needed to graduate are fulfilled by physical education courses.

Because physical education courses like bowling and badminton are in the school of education L&S students are unable to receive credit towards graduation from them.

Officials say one reason is that for all but a few majors, phys-ed courses are no longer required to graduate from UW-Madison. Since the mid 1970s, physical education classes have not been included on the endless list of requirements for students.

UW physical education activities coordinator Ronnie Carda said the lack of phys-ed course requirements decreases their credit weight.

“Once it [a course] is knocked out as a requirement, then it is difficult to see how these [courses] should count,” Carda said. “It comes down to the inability to provide to everyone on campus.”

Carda said the large number of students that formerly took phys-ed required large staffing and cost.

“They went out related to budget issues,” Carda said.

Not every school is following UW-Madison’s lead.

“I think that probably you look at the Big Ten as a composite group, there are only two schools with phys-ed requirements,” Carda said, citing Penn State and Iowa University.

Columbia University in New York also has a phys-ed requirement, including a mandatory student swim test.

Columbia Physical Education chairman Dr. Ken Torrey explained the requirements.

“We have a two semester phys-ed requirement,” said Dr. Ken Torrey, chairman of physical education at Columbia. “Two points of the necessary 126 needed to graduate are phys-ed, and a student can take two more points of phys-ed as an elective.”

Columbia senior Ben Schwartz said the swimming test required for graduation is nothing but ‘a pain in his ass.’

“I don’t understand why a swim test is needed to top off an Ivy League education,” he said. “Is someone’s ability to understand theoretical physics hindered by an inability to swim?”

The size of the student population at Colombia enables the school to fund a phys-ed requirement for its student body.

“We have 5,000 undergrads,” Torrey said. “It’s a smaller university, you’ll see P. E. required in a lot of smaller schools and I’m all for that,” Carda said in regards to Columbia.

Torrey said the swim test has been around for some time at Columbia, becoming a part of its history.

“Basically, it is around almost as a tradition,” Torrey said. “The swim test is three lengths of the pool, we identify people who are weak swimmers and these people take a beginner’s course. We find it turns out to be a great experience for them.”

A student secretary from Columbia joked that students participating in the engineering program at Columbia are not required to take the swim test.

“They must figure that if students can build a bridge over the water, they don’t need to know how to swim,” the secretary said.

Dr. Torrey said Cornell and Dartmouth are the only two other colleges in its conference that have phys-ed requirements. Dartmouth also has a swim test for its students.

Phys-ed courses differ in academic weight from university to university. Carda wished that they counted a little more at UW-Madison.

“Any time you’re teaching, you want to see your course count,” Carda said.

Both Carda of UW-Madison and Torrey of Columbia said phys-ed is important in many ways other than credits and requirements.

“There is a lot of education taking place,” Carda said. “It is about developing skill, improving knowledge, and maintaining an active lifestyle.”