Illinois State University was one of 24 colleges and universities officially recognized by the Exercise is Medicine on Campus (EIM-OC) program.
Those schools that were recognized promote physical activity as a vital sign of health to their campus community. The awards were given as part of the 2015 Exercise is Medicine World Congress, held in May in conjunction with the American College of Sports Medicine’s (ACSM) Annual Meeting.
“Each of these campuses has made a difference at their school by making health a priority,” said Dr. Carena Winters, chair of the EIM-OC program. “These college and university leaders are making movement a part of the daily campus culture and providing students the tools necessary to strengthen healthy physical activity habits that will benefit them throughout their life.”
Illinois State’s EIM-OC team members are School of Kinesiology and Recreation (KNR) Professors Kristen Lagally and Daniel Dodd and students Alex Wolfe and John Grimwood, and Student Health Services’ Dr. Christina Nulty. The team collaborated with Nikki Brauer from Campus Wellness and Alana Harris from Campus Recreation to compile a list of current campuswide activities that align with ACSM’s EIM-OC mission of assessing and improving physical activity levels for all campus community members, including students, faculty and staff.
Illinois State was awarded silver-level recognition in May. Silver-level activities include hosting classes that teach students the fundamentals of EIM, conducting campus/community educational seminars on physical activity, having university health care professionals educate patients on the importance of physical activity as medicine, and having health- and wellness-based campus entities work with campus health services so that every health care provider discusses physical activity with every patient or client.
“The School of KNR’s mission and vision include ‘to foster physically active and healthy lifestyles’ and ‘to enhance quality of life for all through healthy and active lifestyles,’ so working with ACSM on Exercise is Medicine on Campus is a natural fit” Lagally said. “The team will continue to promote physical activity on campus and explore a referral-based system, with the goal of providing increased options and opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to get a daily dose of their physical activity medicine.”
