NEW graduation requirement: lose some weight, bub!

Have you heard about this story out of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania? Apparently that freshman 15 has taken on a whole new level of importance.

Here's the gist: Students with a body mass index (calculate yours here) of 30 or above will be required to take a fitness course that meets three times per week. If your BMI is high, and you don't complete the course, no degree for you, McFattypants.

At first blush, I wondered whether this was appropriate, and how could this be fair. How could a requirement be imposed so selectively like this? Doesn't seem right. Is this even legal?

I thought to my college days, eons ago though they were, and how I might have felt at the time if some requirement had been imposed upon my education at MSU. I would have been livid. I would have objected. I would have done the same thing the editor at the Lincoln University student newspaper did and demanded the university make the requirement universal, not just for 30BMIers.

But now I think I've come to the conclusion that: with all the health concerns that relate to obesity, including the fact that costs are going to rise exponentially for all to address the needs of the obese; and with the look on my children's faces as they keep tabs on my latest cholesterol numbers ... I think Lincoln University's intentions are a good thing.

Targeting fat people? Not so sure that's the best way to go about it. The university's higher-ups I'm sure could have figured out a way to tweak graduation requirements to include some healthy living education. Another problem I see is that, I can point to a good many people who, once they left college, their weight ballooned a little. Or a lot. Present company included. And I don't think it's a case where those people understood healthy living and eating back then and just forgot. No, I think it's a case where people's bodies and lives change. People struggle with weight at different ages and for different reasons. Stress and genetics can play just as big a role as diet and caloric intake.

So while I applaud Lincoln U for wanting their students to be healthy ... I think their execution of this was a little over the top.

Taylor Swift song inspires memorable elementary school performance

You've seen her.

The long, curly locks of golden hair cascading down an angelic face, always singing about a boyfriend or some other magical moment in her very young life.

Of course I'm talking about Taylor Swift. And normally I wouldn't be inclined to write about her or talk about her for any musical reason. But I have to admit that I'll always be a fan of her song, "Love Story." And I'll tell you why.

If any of you have children, you've no doubt been to a few Christmas- or holiday-themed singing programs at a school or day care center. Maybe you've been to several. If you're like me, you've been to several dozen, all of which fall on a quality continuum scale ranging from "not bad," to "wow." (All kids show up and no one pukes, not bad. Songs sung loudly, with feeling, actions, maybe even characters ... wow.)

But this isn't a story about a program that went well. It's about a program that didn't go so well, at least not until Taylor Swift showed up. My daughter, who LOVES when we come to her shows, who looks for us in the audience and smiles and sings proudly, said this to me: "Please don't come! It's gonna be really bad!"

I'm going to spare the name of the school. The teachers there work hard, and there can't be a much harder task than getting a bunch of sixth-graders to sing. Have you had a sixth-grader in your home? It can be the most amazing, and most maddening, time of your life. Changes are occurring, attitudes are shifting, boundaries are being pushed. None of this necessarily means a group of them won't sing pretty. But it sure as heck don't help. So my hat goes off to the teachers who do all they can do and did all they did.

Here's how it went down ...

Like all shows like this, the gymnasium was packed. The limited bleacher space filled immediately. Folding chairs, too. All the wall space was filled with the backs of parents. In fact, they were three, four and in some cases five deep against the walls. I, having been on the short end of the height gene pool, had to crane my neck around a rather tallish and rotundish soccer mom who came late and didn't realize she'd parked in front of a short guy. So it's hot in there.

The kids are taking their places. A hush falls over the crowd ... Until, BOOM! a ruckus erupts near the back of the lined up kids. It seems in the back, one of the kids has fallen off the bleachers. A hundred sixth-grade heads turn, a handful of teachers rush to help ... But it's OK. Just a little pride is hurt. And the show continues.

Students had been learning guitar. A few dozen of them are set up to play them, and they sound swell. And then a few play electric guitar. And before I say anything about this, let me just say it was clear they'd been practicing, clear they loved what they were doing and maybe they'll go on to be major rock stars. But on this day, a few notes were, well, missed ...

A song or two later, the kids get start song three or four (it's a been a while, and I'm 40 now, so my memory fails me from time to time), the kids get off to a bit of a rough start. Some are singing, some aren't. Is there a miscommunication? Do they know what song they're singing? The teacher raises her hands, waves them in the air ("like she just don't care!") to signal the students to stop singing. They do. And then they start over.

So as you can see, things weren't going well. I remember thinking to myself, "My god, this is a train wreck ... Now I know why Emma didn't want us to come."

And then Taylor showed up.

Not the woman herself, of course. But her spirit -- the same youthful spirit you see oozing from her pores every time she accepts a major music industry award and tells a crowd of smitten onlookers how "this is definitely the highlight of my senior year," or "I gotta go now and do my homework!"

I wondered whether that song in the program was a coincidence, whether some quaint, acceptable song from the early 1900s just happened to have the same name as Taylor Swift's chart topper "Love Story." You've heard the tune. It's inescapable. "Mary me Juliet, you'll never have to be alone!" Sappy, to be sure, and hardly the stuff of elementary school concerts.

In the packed gymnasium, however, on this spring day, Taylor Swift's spirit turned a memorable (for the wrong reasons) show into one I'll never forget.

The piano player got it rolling with a few notes that set the tone. If anyone was wondering about that coincidence, they weren't now. It was unmistakable. The lyrics, sung from the mouths of a few hundred sixth graders who were suddenly ready to let everyone know how good they were, transformed the atmosphere from "Is it over yet?" to "Oh my ... What's this, now?"

"We were both young, when I first saw you,

I close my eyes and the flashback starts,

I standing there,

on a balcony in summer air."

Reluctant singers became the cast from "Grease." You could hear every word. The gymnasium, which for much of that concert was a room full of people who obsessively checked their watches, turned into a place where time stood still. It was as if the gods of school concerts looked down upon the school that day and said, "Mankato, here is a moment to remember."

We laugh about this concert in my house. And when the subject of Taylor Swift comes up in conversation, I say, "I may not be the biggest fan of her music, but I'll always like Taylor Swift."

I thought of her, and the concert, on that night when Kanye West made an ass of himself at her expense, interrupting her acceptance speech to tell everyone that he thought someone else made a better video -- the look on her face was the definition of crestfallen. I'm guessing she recovered nicely, what with her multi-platinum success and millions of dollars.

But more importantly, I thought of the kids and the remarkable recovery they made that day. It was dramatic. Maybe even Shakespearean. OK, maybe not Shakespearean, but a helluva show, and helluva story.

Minnesota State University's Latino Center, CAP program, budget situation showing just how delicate some of these issues are

I'm not going to come down on one side of the issue or the other when it comes to the Latino Center at Minnesota State University. And frankly, it's probably an oversimplification to suggest this issue can be boiled down to two sides. There are probably many sides. Same goes for the controversy surrounding the College Access Program, and even the budget situation -- the one where the university may be forced to eliminate faculty or, worse yet, entire programs

It would be inappropriate for me as the reporter who covers MSU to definitively state whether I think there should or should not be a Latino Center or where it belongs, or whether I think the students in the College Access Program are being treated fairly, or whether I think one department or program should get cut over another.

But I will say this -- and this is more of an observation after sitting in on meetings, interviewing sources, etc. ... People are starting to wonder whether or not it's a good idea to speak their mind about the topic, and there appears to be some fairly intense feelings on the issue across racial lines.

I spoke with a source on the Latino Center story who confided in me that they weren't sure they felt comfortable even talking to me, stating that even agreeing to be interviewed about a subject might make it look like they're advocating a particular view. And while talking with a source on the budget story, that source called me back and said they'd prefer to remain out of the story because, with cuts on the horizon, the source didn't want to take the chance that whatever was said was taken the wrong way.

Hmmmmm ... 

It seems unfortunate to me that people seem afraid to talk. Ironically, when I wrote a piece a few months ago about faculty disapproval over some of the decisions of the president at Gustavus, sources seemed much less afraid to speak. Granted, a handful of key sources in that story never returned my phone calls, which in essence says to me they didn't want to talk about it. But of the ones I did talk with, all seemed confident that what they said would be taken in the context that, on a college campus that respects free speech and diversity of thought, anyone's ideas are respected, no matter how much they differ from those in authority or those in power. 

Was there some hesitation? Sure. Outright refusal to speak? Nope.

I hope what I'm seeing isn't a trend. There are A LOT of brilliant people at MSU. I'd like to think any of them would be free to speak their mind about any topic without it counting against them in some way.