Last year, University of Houston-Downtown employees surpassed expectations in our first year participating in the Get Fit Texas! Challenge, which is run by the Texas Department of State Health Services. In it, we competed against similarly sized institutions across the state to get the greatest number of employees to partake in 150 minutes of physical activity for at least six of 10 weeks. The University placed fifth out of 16 institutions, most of which had been involved in the competition for years. We also placed second within our system, beating out University of Houston.
Data from 2025 shows that the University has the potential to rise further up the ranks. By the end of the competition, 20% of eligible employees had registered. Every single participant who logged activity across six or more weeks surpassed the minimum of 900 minutes required, with around 90% of them doubling that goal. A significant portion who logged less than six weeks also surpassed the minimum minutes required.
The Office of Human Resources is organizing UHD’s participation in the challenge, and they will be running weekly raffle drawings for participants. The Wellness & Success Center is also partnering to promote the challenge by offering active participants free access to their facilities between 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. every weekday. Employees can take advantage of their Fitness Release Time benefit to carve out time within their work week to exercise at the gym or around the University.
Keep an eye out for more communications from Human Resource as they host events throughout the competition’s run and push out free or low-cost activities. Registration opens on January 12, and the competition formally starts on Monday, January 19.