GPSO starts health, wellness initiative for grad students

For graduate students at IU who can't find motivation to exercise and be healthy, there are now free bagels, basketball tickets and personal training sessions at the Student Recreational Sports Center to give an incentive to work out. A new program initiated by the Graduate and Professional Student Organization is designed to get graduate students out of their normal routine and active in the areas of their life they might be neglecting. \n"Most graduate students lead hectic lives trying to balance teaching and doing coursework because it's so time-consuming," said Lily Ibarra, director of the program. "Sometimes we abandon things that maintain a balance in our lives like health, exercise, sleep and eating well, as well as things that you normally don't get to do, like reading for fun and spending time with friends and family." \nThe program, created by the GPSO's University Life Committee, is an online tally-based system. When graduate students initially sign up, they choose three activities to which they will try devote at least 10 hours to throughout the month. Each time they do an activity, which can range from walking or meditation to yoga or running, they enter it into the Web log. No documentation for activities completed is required, and the log is based on an honor system, Ibarra said. \nAfter completing 10 hours, participating graduate students receive a free bagel and are entered into a raffle to win a free personal training session or basketball, football or opera tickets. Various organizations on campus have also donated other prizes. \nSome graduate students, however, are not entirely convinced the program will work for them. \n"I've been wanting to get on a regular workout schedule. I'm not sure if an online checklist would help me do that or not, but it's certainly worth a shot," said graduate student Ryan McKinley. "We all run out of hours in a day and would like to be more active and work out, though." \nWhile the program exists primarily to encourage personal health and wellness, the GSPO hopes it can also be a social outlet for graduate students.\n"One of the things we'd really like to do is form more walking groups," said GPSO moderator Paul Rohwer. "The idea here is that people will encourage each other to continue to be healthy." \nMeeting new people outside their academic programs by exercising together will be a good thing for graduate students, Ibarra said. \nAccording to the GPSO, the health and wellness initiative will continue as long as there is money, support and interest for it. \n"We have been handing out fliers and bagels around campus to get the word out," Rohwer said. "You are getting free food and the possibility of winning free prizes for doing activities that make your life better, and we hope graduate students will see this as a good opportunity"