The Power of Three

Hurley Riley III

March 5, 2018

Three- that's the number of dining facilities located on the Brownsville campus of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Over spring break, students in the Public Health in Action course collaborated on three different projects in the south Texas region. The project which I was originally assigned involved interviewing Brownsville elementary teachers about their schools' physical activity policies. Due to the Charro Days Fiesta, a celebration of Brownsville's bi-national culture, many of the teachers ended up cancelling. We were only in Texas for five full days, so we had to quickly come up with a plan B.

After spending the first two days discussing campus-specific health problems and planning a project, the three of us (Dr. Karabulut, Mia, and I) finally created a project- to assess the food and drink environment encompassing the UTRGV campus. Our project mentor expressed that students aren't presented with healthy food options around campus. Nearly half of college students purchase foods and beverages on or near campus at least three times per week so one can imagine how big of a problem this is.

During the data collection phase, Mia and I walked through every campus building to identify the quantity and quality of every drinking fountain, vending machine, and dining facility. We spent over three and a half hours walking, but the data was certainly worth every step.

Our project mentor stated that our data will be used to help establish healthier on-campus food options and improve drinking fountains. Since we came across only four water bottle refill fountains on campus, UTRGV administration may install more water bottle fountains based on our data. I never would have thought that three people could make such a big impact in only three days. Now that I'm back in Ann Arbor, I can't help but think about the health-related problems in our campus community. Please share any health-related issues on our campus that you think need to be addressed.