News Byte: New York Tech Recognized by ACSM for Fostering a Healthy Community

New York Institute of Technology is one of only 153 universities and colleges worldwide to be honored by the American College of Sports Medicine’s (ACSM) Exercise is Medicine® program for its efforts to create a culture of wellness on campus.

The ACSM’s Exercise Is Medicine® on Campus (EIM-OC) campaign calls upon universities and colleges to promote physical activity as a vital sign of health. The ACSM recognizes colleges that make movement a part of the daily campus culture, assess physical activity at every student health visit, and provide students with the tools necessary to strengthen healthy physical activity habits that can last a lifetime.

For 2021, New York Tech received Silver level EIM-OC designation, as well as a COVID Conqueror badge, a new honor given to campuses that demonstrated creative adaptations to physical activity programming during the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the last year, the pandemic presented many challenges, but the campus community found new ways of staying active.

New York Tech’s health-conscious community “pivoted” both figuratively and literally, with many in-person initiatives adopting a new or virtual format to help members exercise. For example, the Rock Steady Boxing program offered virtual classes for patients of the Adele Smithers Parkinson’s Disease Treatment Center to continue their vigorous exercise, a vital component of Parkinson’s disease treatment. NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYITCOM) also offered a virtual 5k run that provided an opportunity for the entire New York Tech community to come together to stay active, pay tribute to frontline healthcare workers, and celebrate the Class of 2020. In addition, NYITCOM’s Fit Physician program adopted masked and socially distanced runs in outdoor settings.

Since September 2020, the institution has logged more than 4,700 activities.