On Saturday the “”got milk?”” campaign came to UCSD as part of the Homecoming celebration held at RIMAC Field. Along with inflatable slides, moon jumps and face painting, the “”got milk?”” booth managed to attract the attention of many passers-by interested in hearing its message: “”Make sure you’re drinking your milk!””

A recent national study indicates that eight out of every 10 incoming college students are leaving behind their primary meal providers: their parents. With more students making their own decisions regarding their diets, parents are concerned that their sons and daughters are not drinking the amount of milk their body requires.

“”We’re trying to have college kids drink three glasses of milk a day,”” said event coordinator Maureen Brennan. “”If you drank three eight-ounce glasses of milk each day, you would get the amount of calcium you need.””

Students often forget the importance of milk in their diets. Soft drinks and bottled water pose strong competition to milk, but they fail to provide the nutrients that milk contains. One such nutrient is calcium, which helps build bone mass, among many other vital functions.

“”If people don’t get the amount of calcium they need now, then they’re going to suffer for it later,”” Brennan said. “”You don’t really think about your bone growth later on in life, but everything you do now is going to affect you.””

Participants in the event were asked to sign the “”Drink 3 Pledge,”” which serves as a promise to themselves to remember to drink the amount of milk their body needs.

“”It’s easy because you can have [milk] in your cereal, at lunch — to go to McDonalds, you can get milk there, and you can have it in coffee before you study at night,”” Brennan said. “”It’s not as hard as it sounds, you can get it in your diet a lot of different ways.””

Along with the informative advice, the “”got milk?”” event allowed students to imitate the popular “”got milk?”” celebrity ads by posing alongside cardboard cutouts of their favorite celebrities with milk mustaches of their own.

Photo highlights from UCSD can be viewed online at http://www.whymilk.com along with photos from some of the other 20 campuses throughout the nation participating in the event.

A handful of students that took part in the event claimed that they were not too surprised by the “”got milk?”” recommended daily consumption of milk. Students did, however, admit that they often fell short of the recommended three glasses in their daily diet.

“”I probably do about two a day,”” said Daniel Yates, Roosevely freshman. “”I think I’ll add another glass each day.””

The “”got milk?”” campaign is made possible by the sponsorship of the Milk Processor Education Program and the National Dairy Council.