During the spring 2023 semester, the Applied Health Sciences (AHS) 101: Wellness course was taught for the last time. Its retirement marked the end of required health and wellness-related classes for Wheaton College students.
Students who fall under the 2022-2023 or earlier academic catalogs — mostly sophomores, juniors and seniors — are still required to fulfill the wellness competency requirement in order to graduate.
Future students will not be required to fulfill the requirement.
David Lauber, dean of humanities and theological studies, said the faculty voted in December 2022 to remove the wellness competency requirement from the Christ at the Core curriculum for “staffing and curricular reasons.” In a later interview with the Record, Brian Hunt, professor of biological and health sciences, said this was code for budget cuts.
“Wheaton College is very committed to running on a balanced budget and to not borrowing money or borrowing a little bit of money,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons why Wheaton College is still here and open today. To do that requires really difficult decisions, and while I don’t agree with all of them as a faculty member, I understand there’s a bigger picture.”
According to an email sent to students in April 2023, students who had not yet taken the wellness class were directed to take the competency exam. The exam was open-book and self-paced, and students were given a study guide and other resources beforehand.
Sarah Johnston, a senior political science major, took the exam in March. She said it was challenging but convenient for students who are graduating this spring and do not have time to take transfer courses.
“We had a solid study guide, and it was very convenient to go at your own pace,” she said. “I don’t feel like I missed anything essential by not taking the class.”
In recent emails from the college, students who missed the March 15 exam deadline were told that they would need to take a pre-approved course outside of the college for transfer credit. This was confirmed by Lauber, who said these students would need to take a transfer course or change to a catalog year with a different requirement.
“One of the purposes of the exam was to help students avoid being required to take transfer credit,” said Lauber. “Either way, the academic advising department can best help students navigate their options.”
One senior, who asked to be quoted anonymously, said he got around the requirement by changing his catalog year from 2020-2021 to 2023-2024.
“I never took the wellness or competency exam,” he said. “The only thing that changed is that wellness was no longer a graduation requirement.”
A student’s catalog year is usually assigned to them according to the academic year in which they started at the college, and it determines which version of degree requirements a student must fulfill in order to graduate.
The wellness class was the last of a longstanding health-related general education requirement for all Wheaton students. In the mid-1950s, students were required to take six semesters of physical activity-related courses, which were each one credit and could be satisfied by taking classes like badminton, golf, swimming or horseback riding. After Wheaton College changed to the quarter system in 1970, students were required to take a course called “Foundations of Physical Fitness,” which replaced a health class, and they now only needed nine quarters of physical activity-related courses. The requirements were overhauled again in 1985, dropping to a one-quarter class called “Foundations of Wellness” and two activity courses. The next change came in 2009, when the requirements were reduced to the two-credit AHS 101 until last spring.
Although there is no longer a required general education course on wellness, faculty have made plans to incorporate health-related material into their classes and into Passage, the college’s mandatory pre-orientation program. Hunt said it will be difficult for Passage and other classes to make up for the loss. The 10-day program is usually packed with coursework, icebreakers, spiritual development and outdoor activities, plus travel days. AHS 101 was intended to teach students the principles of Christian health and wellness over eight to ten weeks.
“Historically, Passage seems to have accomplished its goals quite well,” said Hunt. “But the wellness course was 10 weeks, and there’s just not enough room, in my opinion, to adequately accommodate most of the themes, but maybe a couple. But the proof will be in the pudding. I could be proven wrong.”
