The upward facing dog pose is part of an activity, yoga, that freshman Lauren Wiseman wants to have offered as a course at Baker University.

At one point yoga was offered as an interterm class at Baker, but now is not.

Students can take health classes, or take a more vigorous course, such as racquetball or flag football, but Wiseman thought another option should be made available to students.

Wiseman met with Rand Ziegler, vice president and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, where she received a list of steps needed to move the process forward.

“I have to write a letter and send it to another dean …  if he approves it, they have a process they go through,” Wiseman said. “If we can’t have it as class at Baker, we could almost, 100 percent, have it as an interterm class.”

To collect names, Wiseman created a Facebook page called “Like Yoga? We can bring it to Baker! (…well with your help).”

As of Thursday, 64 people were marked as attending.

“I thought that would be the best way to reach as many people as possible,” Wiseman said. “I’m trying to get 100 signatures or names. The more people we have interested, the better of chance it will go through.”

Associate Professor of Spanish Sandra Schumm, who has practiced yoga for eight years and is certified to teach yoga, said yoga can help students to be in a reflective state of mind.

“It’s important for people who are busy,” Schumm said. “It would help to give them more control over their ability to relax themselves.”

Schumm would be interested in teaching the course if the proposal was accepted.

“A couple Baker students, who are men, wrote me e-mails about being interested in taking yoga classes,” Schumm said. “They thought it would be good to be offered at Baker.”

Schumm and Wiseman both said yoga is good for athletes as well.

“With sports, you use one side more than the other. Yoga is important to do things that balance both sides,” Schumm said.

Sophomore Aaron Caldwell said he enjoys yoga and it has helped him with running cross country and track.

“It’s made me more flexible, and I’ve continued to work on it,” Caldwell said.  “I do it almost every day when I’m at home.”

Wiseman wants more people to join the Facebook page for support and said the class could be approved for the 2011-2012 school year.

“It’s a life activity,” Schumm said. “It’s not something you can do for a while, but your whole life.”