UT RecSports partnered with Nike to renovate the Gregory Gym games room and launch Nike U Move — a program that encourages students to stay physically active. The new space, which opened Feb. 14, will host Nike events and remain available for students and organizations to use.

RecSports chose five student organizations to compete for cash prizes as part of the U Move campaign in fall 2021. First place wins $10,000, and the prize for each place decreases by $2,000. The organizations chosen include the Black Women Wellness Organization, Hispanic Business Student Association, Society of Women Engineers, Texas 4000 for Cancer and Texas Mohini Dance Team.

“During the fall, anyone on campus could nominate a UT student organization,” said Randall Ford, director of communications and development at RecSports. “Nike reviewed applications and interviewed finalists for the final five.”

Ford said students nominated over 750 organizations, making the process highly competitive. The 15 teams in the final stage had to create a video submission to be considered. The final five teams will showcase their movement throughout the semester.

Ayushi Dalal, logistics chair for Texas Mohini Dance Team, said the group included some of their old performances in the video since their organization is about 16 years old. 

“We talked about what movement means to our team, how it started and how it helps the girls that are on our team,” said Dalal, a management information systems senior. 

Abi Chandler, vice president of the Black Women Wellness Organization, said they plan to host an event on April 14 led by a professional West African dancer, which will be open to the public.

Ella Jiang, president of the Society of Women Engineers, said their group will host a scavenger hunt starting at Gregory Gym. Jiang said the final clue will be related to math and engineering. 

“To get the final clue, at every stop you have to answer a little trivia question that will be readily available on our Instagram or our website just to learn a little more about our organization,” chemical engineering senior Jiang said.

While cash prizes will go toward each student organization’s mission, the aim of the campaign is to get the whole student body active, Ford said. Students can participate by creating an account at umove.nike.com and scanning QR codes located throughout RecSports facilities to earn points.

Although this campaign is meant to last one semester, the renovations to the Gregory Gym games room will remain at the discretion of RecSports, according to Ford.

Jiang said the room was acceptable before, but is much better after the renovation. 

“The way they’ve transformed it was really cool and it’s so vibrant now,” Jiang said.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that over 750 organizations were nominated, as opposed to 100. The Texan regrets this error.