IF YOU GO
What: Blood drive
Where: Schine Student Center
When: 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
How much: Free

Syracuse University and the University of Connecticut are competing to see which university can garner the largest percentage of blood donors on campus during the month of April.

The first blood drive SU held for the competition was April 6, but SU organizers said they hope the drive Thursday in Schine Student Center will draw the largest crowd yet, between 50 and 60 donors. The competition, sponsored by the American Red Cross, is meant to encourage greater student participation in the blood drives, said Lynn Fox, the senior account manager at the Red Cross for SU.

UConn’s account manager approached Fox with the idea to attempt to get as many donors as possible within a short time span, she said. SU students are generally supportive of blood drives on campus, she said, and the competition is meant to increase it. Since UConn is a larger school, the competition is based on the percentage of the student body that donates, Fox said.

“It was a need for more donors at the college level,” Fox said. “The hospitals were calling for a lot of blood. Syracuse University students do a great job, but our hospitals truly rely on Syracuse University being in touch and those students showing up, and I can always use more donors.”

Fox said she would like at least 60 donors, or 60 pints of blood, for Thursday’s drive, but as of Wednesday there were only 12 people signed up. Walk-ins are possible and encouraged. The drive in Schine should be the largest event of the competition, as it has the largest physical capacity for donors compared with the other venues.

A representative from UConn will be present at Thursday’s drive as well, to check on how SU is doing in the competition, said Jamie Jordan, the president of SU’s Red Cross Club.

Jordan said it is important for students to donate blood because only 2 percent of the eligible U.S. population donates.

“It’s quite sad that there are people out there that could donate but don’t, especially nowadays because the need of blood is everywhere with all the natural disasters,” Jordan said.

The first drive was held at the College of Law on April 6 and attracted more than 25 donors, which was the goal, Fox said. The second was held at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry’s Marshall Hall on April 7 and achieved the goal of 50 donors.

Deana Cater, the youth services coordinator for the Red Cross, said she believes SU student participation in the competition has been weaker than she hoped because students may be wary of donating.

“A lot of people don’t really know what goes into it or are afraid,” she said.

SU and UConn are not the only colleges engaged in a blood drive battle. Other colleges that are participating include Cornell University against Dartmouth College and Ithaca College against SUNY Cortland.

The competition is expected to become not just an annual event, but hopefully a yearlong contest, Fox said. The winner of each year will have its name engraved on a plaque.

Fox said she did not yet have information on how each school is faring in the competition, but she hopes to see SU win.

“I have a plaque in the back of my car,” Fox said, “and I don’t want to cross state lines.”

 

Published on April 14, 2010 at 12:00 pm