Keeping with his theme of promoting physical activity, movement science professor John Kilbourne is back on campus this fall, and he is taking the stairs.

“Monday, when I come back from sabbatical, again I see students waiting at the elevator to go up one flight of stairs,” Kilbourne said. “So I thought, ‘I’m just going to start a little thing here.’”

Kilbourne’s ‘little thing’ consists of a pile of self-made signs that he has posted outside of elevators in Mackinac Hall, Padnos, Henry Hall and the Student Services building. The signs read: “Celebrate your ability to use the stairs and please give priority to those who need to use the elevator,” signed with his tagline, “Moving All Ways, Always Moving.”

He got the idea while on sabbatical, traveling through London to get to Paris for a presentation.

“In one of the museums we went to there was this saying, and I took a picture of it, and I just thought ‘that is such a beautiful way to say what I’ve been thinking for all these years,’” Kilbourne said.

According to the Lansing State Journal, the state of Michigan spends $9 billion a year to deal with disease-related sedentary lifestyles, including obesity, for which Michigan ranks tenth-highest in the nation.

“Why are there students taking the elevator? We have perfectly healthy faculty and staff, you know, why aren’t we using the stairs?” Kilbourne said. “Because there’s so much now in terms of physical activity – it’s not that you need 35 to 40 minutes in one single dose, but if you got little bursts of it during the day – like walking up the stairs – you know, that’s perfect, that’s fine.”

After sending his idea to some members of the sustainability staff and a few deans on campus, Kilbourne was met with pretty positive feedback.

James Moyer, vice president of facilities planning, said although it is consistent with the University Wellness Program, which encourages all exercise, he thinks it may do little actual change at this time.

“But how many of us complain about the walk from the parking lot to our destination?” Moyer asked. “Adding the signs just adds to the visual clutter and I suspect that it will do very little to change behaviors.”

Kilbourne said there has been a lot written as of late about stairways, and the idea that people might not use them simply because they’re not inviting.

“But now, especially in the LEED buildings, it’s to make them more inviting, to have windows and things you look out upon,” he said.

He added that he hopes with the construction of newer, more user-friendly stairways, people will start to use them more. Eventually, he’d like for the university to endorse permanent signs on all campuses to help not only encourage more stairway use, but raise awareness.

“Be proactive,” he said. “Here’s a simple thing that we can do and it would be interesting to see, you know, just how many people follow- because I like the way it says ‘celebrate your ability to be physical’ rather than forcing people – just celebrate it.”

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