The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of a health-related fitness course on the stages of change for physically active behavior among urban, commuter university students. A 106-item questionnaire containing questions adapted from Marcus et al., (1992) to determine the stage of change regarding exercise behavior was administered to 649 students enrolled in either a general education course (Control Group, C) or a health-related fitness course (Experimental Group, E) at the beginning and the end of a 15-week semester. In the health-related fitness course, a major goal was to promote increased physical activity using behavioral change strategies such as fitness assessment, individual goal setting/evaluation, peer group strategy/re-enforcement, and the development/incorporation of an exercise intervention. The data were analyzed using a Chi-Square Analysis. There were no differences (p>.05) between the E and C groups regarding age, gender, marital status, race, or pretest stage of change (44.9% and 43.5% reported no exercise or they did not exercise regularly for the E and C groups, respectively). Since the purpose of the study was to examine physically active behavior, the stages of change data were analyzed by partitioning the data into "not in action" (precontemplation, contemplation, and preparation) and "physically active" (action and maintenance). Following the 15-week intervention, the E group significantly increased (p=.007) the proportion of subjects who were physically active (55.1% versus 63.1%). During the same period, the C group had a significant decrease (p=.046) in the proportion who were physically active (56.5% versus 40.5%). When the data were stratified based on the demographic variables, the E group only increased the proportion who were physically active among females (49.2% versus 58.9%; p=.011) and whites (55.5% versus 62.4%; p=.035). In conclusion, a 15-week health-related fitness course utilizing behavioral change strategies designed to promote increased physical activity improved the proportion of female and white students who reported that they were in either the action or maintenance stage of change.