Strange to see no one has mentioned this – just down the river, MIT has mandatory PE classes. They're not all "running around a track" though: sailing, pistols, archery, yoga, weightlifting, sailing, all sorts of really cool activities.

> Forcing college students to exercise will backfire, leading many of them to stop as soon as the course is over.

How is this backfiring, if those students would never have exercised at all without the mandatory courses? Plus, you're overlooking the cohort who had never previously been exposed to the benefits of physical activity (maybe this is more prevalent at MIT...) and end up sticking with it. Among my friendgroup the latter is more common than the former.