College Shorts

Weight loss courses help overweight students

The percentage of overweight college students has increased to 11.3 percent in 2009 from eight percent in 2000. As concern for the growing number of overweight students rises, some colleges are responding by allowing their students to raise their GPA by losing weight.
University of Texas, University of Maryland, and University of Vermont are just a few of the schools that now offer weight-management courses to help their students reach and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Due to the embarrassment of going to a weight-loss class, it was only after these classes were offered online that schools saw the course enrollment increase.

The course requires that students wear a monitor that counts steps and calories expended and keep a food log to track their calorie intake. However, one of the most important components of the course, according to Christopher T. Ray, a professor at University of Texas, is the support-group style student discussion that allows students to share their struggles and urge each other to reach their goals.

— The Chronicle of Higher Education

Concussions threaten college football players

A disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy was discovered in the brain of deceased University of Pennsylvania football player Owewn Thomas last week.
This disease, up until now, has been associated only with professional football players who were known to have had repeated concussions. Thomas is believed to be the youngest athlete found with signs of the disease. However, he never reported a concussion throughout the 12 years he had played football. It is predicted that the disease came from unnoticed concussions or many subconcussive hits.
Brearley went to Capitol Hill this week to talk to Congress about the many issues surrounding concussions in football culture.
Brearley’s greatest concern is that high school athletes have their parents to watch after them, and professional players have a hired medical staff constantly on call. College athletes have neither, and are thus dependent on their friends to notice behavioral changes after a concussion.

— The Chronicle of Higher Education

Vanderbilt student has unconventional 21st

Leslie Labruto, a senior at Vanderbilt University, has accomplished something that most college students would find impossible: she gave up drinking on her 21st birthday.
Labruto requested for all of her friends to skip the traditional rite of passage of buying her a drink, and instead donate money to get the Bayaka people of the Central African Republic clean drinking water. Through the nonprofit organization Charity: Water, over 100 people have donated about $4,500 in Labruto’s name (http://www.mycharitywater.org/leslies21). Her ultimate goal is $5,000, and the fundraising continues through the end of the month.
Labruto’s concern for clean water began when she was a sophomore, when she created a filtration system for a large body of standing water in a village near Buenos Aires. In January she travelled to Peru and helped install an electric water pump in a village without clean drinking water.
And, for all of the skeptics, Labruto did admit to having a drink on her birthday: a Sprite.

— The Chronicle of Higher Education