Lifetime Fitness program considers changing curriculum, uses student feedback for the first time

For the first time since its creation in 2006, the lifetime fitness program is opening itself up to student feedback.

After freshman Wilson Parker wrote a letter to the editor that appeared in the Jan. 11 issue of The Daily Tar Heel voicing frustration with the lifetime fitness program, the program’s director, Becca Battaglini, sent him an email.

She told him his letter had sparked a desire within the Exercise and Sports Science department to create a student committee that would examine possible changes to the LFIT curriculum. She wanted Parker to be the first member.

“It’s not the goal to totally revamp the program but to continue with new trends and find what students want to get out of it,” Battaglini said.

Student Body Vice President Zealan Hoover will be charged with choosing an additional six to eight students to serve with Parker on the new committee.

Hoover said he will look for dedicated students to bring different perspectives to the committee, and students who will work hard toward committee goals.

“We want students that are passionate and interested but also have the ability to make this commitment later on in the semester,” Hoover said.

He said he plans to have committee members selected by next week. Once finalized, the department will conduct committee meetings five times throughout the semester to discuss the program.

LFIT was created in 2006, but Battaglini made significant curriculum changes when she stepped in as director in 2007.

She implemented the current LFIT curriculum structure, which includes both physical activity classes and an online module section. She reformed it as a way to eliminate instructor lectures during the first five weeks of the course, bringing the focus back to physical activity.

But several students have expressed discontent with the online aspect of the course, including Parker, who wrote about it in the letter.

Parker said that while the LFIT program teaches students valuable lessons, he found the highly technical information covered in the online modules unnecessary and irrelevant.

“Even more absurd than the curriculum, however, is the method of teaching it,” he wrote in the letter.

Parker said he plans to serve on the committee and is looking forward to addressing the issues he feels many students have with the LFIT program.

“I feel the concerns I expressed in my letter to the editor were valid, and I would like to see those concerns mitigated,” he said. “I think the results of this committee’s changes will be a stronger LFIT program.”

Contact the University Editor at university@dailytarheel.com.