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Basic Premise

Can a microbiology professor require students to run laps on the track during class for a grade, even if the class usually has no physical component to it?

Background

As part of my role as a university professor, my college requires that I advise a number of undergraduate students on the progress on their degrees in the college. These meetings are short, usually no more than 10 minutes, and act as a quick waypoint to ensure that students are on track and having success with their studies. I ask if the student has any concerns generally and sometimes advise on career options or basic life advice, etc.

This past week, I had a student inform me that he is worried about his grade in an upper division [microbiology] (not the actual subject, but represenative of the type of subject) class. This student is a pre-med student who is on track to begin applying to medical school shortly. I have spoken with this student two times prior and he is an excellent student and has done very well in all of his classes up to this point. As such, I inquired as to why he was worried about his microbiology grade. He then proceeded to tell me that his microbiology professor bases part of their grade off of what he calls "Physical Involvement." (Or something like that).

Now, what is this "Physical Involvement" portion of the grade you might ask? Running. As in, let's go down to the fieldhouse and run a mile before class dismisses. (More on that in a moment).

However, the student in question is a huskier fellow for whom exercising and "physical involvement" is no easy task. Simply put, he is someone that the Centers for Disease Control in the United States would classify as obese.

Although only very loosely connected to microbiology, the professor in question has decided that since most of his class consists of students who will become physicians,* he wants to encourage holistic health practices in his students. Part of this, in his opinion, is maintaining a healthy body weight. He supposes that a heavyset physician cannot give advice on a patient's health without coming across as a hypocrite. Thus, this professor has made physical exercise part of the grade for the class.

Because the class is being taught on a 7-week instead of a 14-week schedule (summer class), each class period goes for 120 minutes instead of the usual 50 minutes. The professor has decided that for the last 30 minutes of the class, the class will walk over to the fieldhouse and run a mile. For credit. There are 20 class periods in the semester and each class period a student is given one point for running a mile at the end of class. The professor and TAs count the laps for the students. A student who completes a mile in each of the 20 class periods is given 20/20 for the "physical involvement" portion of the grade. A student who runs 9/10ths of a mile each class, but never completes the mile receives 0/20. It is all or nothing. This accounts for 20% of the grade. Hence, a student who never runs the full mile is pretty much guaranteed a B- or worse in the class. For someone who is trying to get into medical school, getting a B- in a core class is not ideal.

There supposedly (as per the student) is no way to make these runs up. In theory, there is no time limit (e.g. "You must do this in 6 minutes or better"), but the students are realistically only given about 10-15 minutes to complete the run before the professor needs to leave. The student in question here is the only runner too slow to complete a mile in that time.

Field Work

With all of this being told to me, I decided I needed to see this for myself. At the appointed time, I casually appeared at the fieldhouse in my running clothes and pretended to exercise. And sure enough, here came the microbiology class to run their laps. It was exactly as described by the student. (This had to be one of the oddest things I have ever seen at a university track. Some of these students ran their laps in semi-formal pants with leather shoes). Every student completed the run (some just barely), except for the student I am advising.

The Question

How do I proceed? Do I talk to the dean? Do I talk to the head of the microbiology department? The professor of the class is a long time professor at the university. He is known for being a bit zany. His class requirements seem completely irrelevant, but I'm not sure how (or if) I should intervene.

How much leeway should a professor be given to determine what "counts" in his or her class?

*The class is usually taught in the Spring Semester (January-May), but the college is running a special section this summer in order to accommodate about 20 or so pre-med students who had a conflicting class last semester. Normally the class would be a mix of pre-med students, microbiology majors, pre-pharmacy students, etc.

As an outsider this seems ridiculous. I think a quick email to the chair of the department saying that you have an advisee who is worried about BIO302 (or whatever the number is) and the running component. It seems reasonable to ask if that is actually a requirement (which it clearly is, but the department chair may not know it) and if it is, what course would be better suited for a student who is not interested in running. That should get the ball moving.

The student's health status or physique is not of consideration here. If the situation is as the student described, the prof's behavior is simply untenable -- if for no other reason than 25% of contact hours being spent on nonsense. Every student in the class should be incensed. The TAs should be upset that they're spending their time this way.

The chair of the relevant department is the appropriate point of contact. When communicating with the Chair, include that you're passing the student's story along without verification, but you felt the story odd enough that you felt compelled to bring it to the Chair's attention.

If the class is about microbiology, the students’ grade should depend on their knowledge of microbiology, and only on that.

I’ll assume based on OP’s description that this is taking place in the US. Even though I’m not a lawyer I would bet money that for the professor to tie grades in an academic class to athletic performance would constitute an obvious and blatant violation of one or more US laws. It very likely would also violate various policies of your university. For example, at my university the faculty code of conduct has a concept of “failure to meet the responsibilities of instruction”, which I know for a fact would cover the case of a professor spending a large amount of the class’s time on activities that are unrelated to the topic of the course.

Should I intervene when a colleague in a different department makes students run laps as part of their grade?

Obviously yes. You are the student’s undergraduate adviser. That makes you precisely the person positioned to help him when he is being treated in an abusive and probably illegal way by one of his professors.

How do I proceed? Do I talk to the dean? Do I talk to the head of the microbiology department?

Either of those persons sound like appropriate people to talk to. The chair would be the most appropriate, being the person directly above the misbehaving professor in the institutional hierarchy, so I suggest going to them, unless you have some specific reason to fear retaliation or other adverse consequences if you proceed in this way.

The professor of the class is a long time professor at the university. He is known for being a bit zany.

This is irrelevant. If the professor graded his students based on their looks, how much money they have, the number of hot dogs they can wolf down in 10 minutes, or any other similar criterion unrelated to their knowledge of microbiology, we would not be talking about the professor’s zaniness. Neither should we be talking about it in the current equally absurd scenario.

How much leeway should a professor be given to determine what "counts" in his or her class?

Any leeway a microbiology professor should or should not be given would be appropriate to discuss in the context of how they teach microbiology, and how they evaluate students’ knowledge of microbiology. What the professor is doing here is entirely unrelated to such activities, and as such, no leeway applies. As with the mention of zaniness, “leeway” is not even a relevant factor to discuss.

I agree with the other answers that you should e-mail the department chair. Additionally, I would suggest that you advise the student that he has options to solve this himself even without your intervention. You are his advisor, so advise him, don't just try to solve it for him. E.g. your university may have an Ombudsman, suggest that he talk to them. The department/college/university may have a formal process that he could use to lodge a complaint or appeal the grade. Explain to him how this process works and send him the relevant information. Your university may have a student government or student association that lobbies/advocates for students' interests that may be able to take up his cause. And if all else fails, there is always "name and shame": a well placed headline in the student newspaper or local TV news station like "Prof flunks students for being fat" would gather a lot of interest (note: definitely use this option only if all others have failed)