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Rhodes85 -> RE: Overweight University Students Beware! (11/23/2009 8:16:59 PM)
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Rhodes, what could they get sued for? You can't "sue" someone for "offending" you.
No you can't (though the way things are these days it wouldn't suprise me if you could) but you can sue for discrimination. In this case refusing to give someone a degree they paid and spent years studying for, on the basis that they are too fat.
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It's a course requirement at a traditionally black college. How is it different than, say, a foreign language requirement no one wants to take?
Well I was referring more to the way they said 'particularly african american students' in reference to being overweight. Granted its a black college but the way it was stated sort of sounded like they were trying to imply blacks had a habit of being overweight or something.
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Interesting that this seems to be a problem. At the college and at the university I attended, a certain number of credit hours were required in the health/fitness area for your 4-year degree. I am not sure about the 2-year degrees.
I see your point and if the person was taking a degree to become a gym teacher or something I would say fine. and even in that case its just a certain number of credit hours right? Not a specific weight? Here they are saying if a person is a certain weight they don't graduate.
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I feel the same way. They have shown they aren't proficient in that subject so they are required to take a class on it. Its one extra class, no big deal. It might add to their college experience and broaden their horizons. At my college you had to take a test to prove you were computer literate. If you got under 70% on the test you had to take a class that otherwise wasn't required. It was called "fluency in technology." A lot of students who had to take it bitched about it. I see it as the same type of thing.
I see your point but again its not the fact that its another class that they have to take in order to pass. Its the school saying 'you weigh this amount of weight. Lose that weight or you don't graduate' After all everyone takes gym classes in elementary and highschool and I fully support that but the school just makes you take the class, they don't tell anyone they are a specific weight so they don't graduate highschool.
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The difference is its a requirement if the school determines you are overweight or not fit. Its not a requirement for everyone, only for those who have a high BMI, which can be misleading.
Exactly. Its basically 'thin people don't have to take it, severely obese people don't have to take it cause they might drop dead of a heart attack and their families will sue us, but all the fat people have to take it'
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It's not a general course requirement but a mandate that they fall within their prescribed BMI number or they have to take the course. That itself is discrimination based on body type and the basis for legal action.
Not to mention that the BMI is a ridiculous index to begin with. Muscle weighs more than fat and the BMI does nothing to account for that difference, so you can have someone with very little body fat classified as obese under BMI standards.
Yeah exactly.
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What does public trough have to do with it? Am I missing the meaning of that phrase? Its a private school if I am not mistaken.
Yes but public schools are still required to follow the law and cannot discriminate against people.
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As mentioned in the quoted portion, I agree the policy isn't advisable. However, that doesn't constitute legal grounds for a lawsuit. Unless administration goes about this stupidly
I have to disagree. They specifically target a specific group. Only overweight people are required to take the class and even then the severely overweight are exempted. Legally a school can't force any student to take a course that other students are not required to take to graduate. They can't tell someone they are 'too fat' to get their degree so they have to lose weight. That is discrimination. Aside from that it is the school that decides the supposed standards for what they consider overweight. As was already stated a BMI index is not the best way to go about doing that, and even if it was, its not that or any other schools right to tell someone they are too fat to get an education. How is that not grounds for a lawsuit?
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Last I saw high BMI people were not a protected class.
Stupid requirement, but not illegally discrminatory.
No, they aren't. But everyone is protected against being discrimated against. and saying someone is too fat to graduate is discrimination.
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Tazzy, they did. The policy applies to those that started in 2006.
Yes but thats irrelevant. If anything it discriminates against people even more. So....people that graduated or started school before 2006 aren't too fat to graduate but anyone who signs up after that can be? You can't hold people to two sets of standards there.
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