An open house event today at the Student Health Center (SHC) drew more than 400 SF State students who took advantage of testing their blood pressure, checking body fat, measuring bone density, getting their eyes checked and testing for HIV.

“Free snacks, come on down!” yelled Kamal Harb, a heath educator at SHC, inviting students to come in. The free food and the red balloons were eye-catching fronts that grabbed the attention of students walking by.

“We do this every fall semester to promote our services to students,” said Harb. “A lot of students don't know what we offer until they are graduating. We are dragging them in with food. It is interesting that we get people who have never been here before.”

Mark Chen, 22, a senior majoring in graphic design, visited the SHC for the first time of his 5-year-long education at SF State. He cited that the reason he never visited the SHC was that he didn’t know what they had to offer, plus he had his own health provider. Chen checked his blood pressure today and made plans to see more doctors to ask questions. He said the services are “more convenient” because they are “not too far away.”

“It's pretty professional. I like it. It's cool,” said Brian Martin, 18, a freshman majoring in nursing, about his visit to the SHC for the first time. He came in today to face the news about his body fat and was surprised to find out that it was “pretty average.” “I thought I was overweight,” he added.

Teresa Leu, a nutritionist at SHC, seemed the busiest today as an exceeding amount of students wanted to find out their body fat. She pinched the student's skin in various spots with a fat caliper and recorded the result on a chart to see if a person has below, above, average, or an unhealthy percentage of body fat.

Despite free offerings of food and health services, the SHC lacked the usual bustle for this time of year, as the doctors waited for students to come in and try out the services.

It’s pretty quiet today,” said Marie Schafle, director of SHC. “Last year you could not get through the corridors.”

Marian Yee, one of the organizers of the event said they have fewer people this year because they don't offer the flu vaccine this season. “It is usually our biggest draw,” said Yee, “but because of the contamination at the Chiron factory (who produced the vaccine), the SHC did not receive any this year.”

Several other factors marred the attendance of the SHC open house. The condom art exhibit, expected to participate in this health fair, was canceled because of the rainy weather, Yee said. Students also could not try the massage because, according to Yee, the SHC is currently negotiating the contract with the practitioners.