In a conversation with an anonymous alumna, Stephens president Dianne Lynch acknowledged that her schedule doesn’t allow her to live as healthy a lifestyle as she’d like. The alumna promptly challenged her to lose weight, and Lynch responded by asking if the woman would donate $100,000 to Stephens if she dropped 25 pounds by the end of the year. The potential donor agreed so readily that Lynch decided to up the ante, asking for $1 million if faculty and staff collectively lost 250 pounds. The alumna agreed, and has promised $1.1 million to the school if the weight is lost by the agreed-upon deadline of Jan. 1, 2011.
As John Cage used to say, I am troubled.
First, the Columbia Tribune report of the pledge claims it originated in a discussion of the need for “healthy lifestyles”. Weight is not a measure of health, weight loss does not necessarily lead to improved health and dieting is almost never healthy. In fact, fat people generally live longer than thin people and have higher survival rates after cardiac events.
If this donor and college president were honestly concerned about the health of the faculty and staff, they’d sponsor a contest targeting a reduction in cholesterol points, or perhaps an effort to ensure that everyone gets at least eight hours of sleep each night. Heart disease and sleep deprivation are serious public health problems in the U.S.; cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., and chronic sleep loss is the cause of one in five serious car crashes. It’s also behind other accidents and injuries, including such large-scale accidents as the Bhopal, India, chemical plant explosion, nuclear reactor meltdowns at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl and the Exxon Valdez oil tanker wreck. Inadequate sleep affects individual health and well-being in ways too numerous to list here.
”- Elizabeth Kissling @ Ms. Magazine discussing a HEALTHY HEALTHY HEALTHY Y’ALL charity incentive at Stephens College, Columbia. She makes some good points, doesn’t she? (via pluseyes)