CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WNCN) - A mandatory fitness class at UNC-Chapel Hill is igniting some controversy on campus.
“I got an A,” said senior Muhsin Bustillo-Poler. “You can get an A if you just show up and are motivated.”
It’s called "Lifetime Fitness."
The class is focused on health and wellness.
Some students say the required online textbook “21st Century Wellness” promotes some pretty wild ideas.
Bustillo-Poler took the class last semester.
“I think certainly that needs to be edited in some form,” said Bustillo-Poler. “That’s just false information that shouldn’t be taught to somebody.”
Many are criticizing the textbook for claiming cancer is a “disease of choice.”
“UNC is supposed to be a liberal university, not to mention the hospital is right down the street and there are plenty of people with cancer in that hospital that obviously are not choosing to be there,” said sophomore Alapika Jatkar.
An excerpt from the book reads “Some experts have begun calling these diseases, diseases of choice because how we choose to live, in large part, determines the risk of being diagnosed with a disease like heart disease, cancer, dementia, and others.”
According to some reports, the textbook also references the Holocaust as well as women and dieting.
Some students are blaming the university and want to see the book pulled from the curriculum.
“I feel like it’s the responsibility of the university to read the textbook that they are selling to us,” said Senior Sarah Rhymer. “I think it’s horrendous that this kind of slipped through.”
One nursing student says, she understands the book’s emphasis on personal responsibility but thinks it takes the idea a bit too far.
“We talked about like how lifestyle choices can make or break a genetic predisposition like, yes smoking and eating terribly and not having a very healthy lifestyle,” said Mary Monroe, a junior. “Yes, you are going to have a higher risk for cancer, but the way that they put it in the book I think it could’ve been handled a little more sensitively.”
CBS 17 did reach out to the university for comment and received a statement from Abigail Panter,
senior associate dean for Undergraduate Education at UNC's College of Arts & Sciences.
The University understands the concerns and sensitivities around certain excerpts in the online text book currently used in the Lifetime Fitness course. Once the department of exercise and sport science received student feedback in the spring 2018 semester about those excerpts in the book, the department discussed those concerns with the publisher as part of an ongoing curriculum review process. Edits could not be made in time for use in the ongoing semester. As previously planned, the course material is currently under review for use this fall.
In our work to protect and promote academic freedom, we respect the process of departmental curriculum review. As is consistent with our process, we will work collaboratively with the department on any proposed or recommended changes.
In an interview online, the book’s author, Barbara Lockhart says the book is based on research knowledge that’s been gained in the last several decades.