Launching a Wellness Revolution at Spelman College

Abstract

[Author Affiliation]Beverly Daniel Tatum. Spelman College, Atlanta, GA.Address correspondence to: Beverly Daniel Tatum, PhD, President, Spelman College, 350 Spelman Lane, SW, Box 616, Atlanta, GA 30314-4399, E-mail: BTatum@spelman.eduThe idea came to me at a Spelman College basketball game. I was mulling over a problem as I watched our team, the Spelman Jaguars, charge up and down the court. The problem in the winter of 2012 was that our NCAA Division III athletic conference was disintegrating. Our seven-school conference had dwindled to only four, not enough to maintain our conference status. Should we travel further and find another conference to join? Doing so would add expense. I had just learned that there were only 80 students participating in our intercollegiate athletic program, barely enough to cover the seven sports we offered and, to my surprise, the cost of the current program was close to $1 million. I also knew that our wellness program, offering popular activities such as Zumba, aqua aerobics, and yoga, was attracting more than 300 participants each week, yet those offerings were constrained by space availability, often forced to work around the practice schedule of our sports teams. As I watched the game that day, it occurred to me that the players on the court would probably not be playing much basketball after graduation. Certainly, we were not preparing professional athletes. I wondered whether they would even play recreationally beyond college. If not, what would they be doing instead to maintain their physical fitness? Running? Walking? Swimming? Tennis? Golf? Zumba? The idea of shifting our resources to invest in a campus-wide wellness initiative that would benefit all of our students as an alternative to NCAA participation began to take shape. With the endorsement of the Spelman College faculty and the approval of the board of trustees, we decided to withdraw from NCAA Division III intercollegiate athletics, effective May 2013, and dramatically expand our campus Wellness Program. We decided to launch a wellness revolution at Spelman College.The health case was compelling. Spelman College is a historically black college for women, and almost all of our students are African American. Whether it is diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, or stroke, black women are more likely to suffer from these ailments and die from them--early.1 All are linked to obesity and lack of physical activity. Approximately four of five African American women are overweight or obese, and they are more likely to be physically inactive than their white counterparts, a potentially deadly combination.2 We realized that we could change our students' health trajectory and, through their influence, affect their home communities as well. We could launch a wellness literacy movement by teaching the fundamentals--how to eat better, move more, and sleep well. In particular, we could encourage those fitness activities most likely to be maintained after college, developing habits of the body as as the mind, habits that will ultimately support a lifetime of healthy living.Eat better, move more, sleep well is the rallying cry of our wellness revolution. We have made changes in our cafeteria--smaller dinner plates, larger salad bar, more flavored waters, fewer soda dispensers, a Fab line for entrees that are 500 calories or less, and nutritional information clearly posted--to encourage healthy choices and we have had campus presentations on the importance of getting enough sleep. But, our biggest focus has been on more. Desirable body size is subject to cultural interpretation, and black women do not want European standards of beauty imposed upon them. A program emphasizing weight loss may motivate some, but will discourage others. However, with or without weight loss, moving more can benefit everyone. …