The grapevine is telling us that Washburn will announce that PE198 courses will no longer be required for graduation during the general faculty meeting Sept. 13.

The PE198 requirement has long been a thorn in the side of students, with continuing education students especially frustrated upon the realization that they need gym credits to graduate.

Many students feel that the course is unnecessary, because it doesn’t fit in their major. Students also complain that they resent paying for a course which many feel is irrelevent to their major.

This is not to say that the entire kineseology department should be eliminated. There is certainly a place for keeping PE198 as a requirement for incoming freshmen. PE198 courses offer a variety of benefits to young, impressionable students, with the health and wellness portions of the classes being invaluable to students living away from home for the very first time.

According to the National Association for Sports and Physical Education, PE classes benefit students with improved physical fitness,  skill development, healthful physical activity, support of other subject areas, self discipline, improved judgement, stress reduction and many other benefits.

While life experience has already taught continuing education students these lessons, it is important for incoming freshmen to learn about making healthy lifestyle choices and learning that making the wrong choice can have serious, even deadly, consequences.

If Washburn does indeed drop the PE198 requirement, then the health and wellness portions of the class should certainly be added into another class and made part of the Washburn First Year Experience.