Student Senate confirmed at their Oct. 9 meeting that Dickinson’s Physical Education (P.E.) requirement is under review. 

The first draft of a document that addresses funding for student-led fitness classes following their being cut from Student Leadership & Campus Engagement funding was proposed during senate on Tuesday. The proposal is dependent on if changes will be made to the P.E. requirement of four half-credit P.E. courses.

Whether changes will be made will become clear “hopefully in the coming months,” said Julien Herpers ’19, director of academics for Student Senate and member of the All-College Committee on Academic Program and Standards (APSC).

This proposal is one response to faculty concerns over how the college would adapt to a removal of the P.E. requirement. The elimination of the requirement was proposed to faculty at their March 6, 2018 faculty meeting; it failed to pass. 

“One of the concerns of the faculty was that they were unclear as to what would be proposed or what would happen if the P.E. credit would be eliminated,” said Herpers. “The fact that the P.E. credit is under review right now is in response to that.” 

Herpers said that the P.E. requirement is in review by an Enrollment and Student Life sub-committee that was charged by APSC to revise the rejected P.E. credit proposal. It must then be approved by the APSC before being presented to the faculty for a vote.

Susan Perabo, professor of creative writing and member of APSC, said following the March faculty meeting, “I anticipate that there will be significant changes, what exactly they will be of course I can’t say,” in an article from March 8, 2018 printed in The Dickinsonian. News of the progress of the P.E. report has since been scarce.

The Tuesday proposal broaches the idea that since SLCE will no longer fund student-run fitness classes “due to college-wide budget cuts,” according to the Tuesday proposal, if there is any change to the P.E. credit, Student Senate may elect to fund the classes up to $20,000.

“The only change if this were to go through,” said Herpers, is that “the classes would have to be taught by students,” and attended by students only.

The proposal will be up for further review by senators on Tuesday, Oct. 16 at the weekly Student Senate meeting at 6:30 p.m. It may be voted on that day or the next week, depending on changes that are deemed necessary by Student Senate.

Student Senate meetings are open to students and the public.