Next week, the Red Cross will visit Tufts for the biannual campus blood drive. But will students be there to donate their blood? Not all of them - and it's not just because Jumbos are afraid of needles.
The overwhelming sentiment from students is that the blood drive isn't publicized well enough. Junior David Spitzer explained that, normally, he would donate blood, but not next week: "I just didn't know about it," he said.
Junior Michael Taub has never donated blood before, because it hasn't been prominent on his schedule: "Mostly, I've forgotten about it on the days that there are drives. The only way I knew about the drive last year was because my roommate told me, and by that time, it was already too late to go," he said.
"People will donate if the opportunity is there and they know about it - but they won't seek it out independently," senior Sarah Kerstein said.
One student believes that even when students don't donate blood, they are probably giving to the community in some way or another.
"I think that some people choose to find other ways to give back. People donate time and energy in so many ways, and some people are afraid of the needles or possible side effects. Others may feel that there is always a surplus of blood so that their efforts would be better appreciated in other areas," sophomore Sara Ober said.
In fact, the Red Cross often advertises an urgent blood shortage via television ads and individual phone calls.
Kerstein hears about the shortage pretty frequently: "They always call me to donate blood because I donated before, and they're always saying that there's a huge shortage. I don't doubt that - there probably is a constant shortage - but it seems like it's always that way," she said.
Senior Alejandro Taylor-Escribano said that he knows a lot of people who donate blood. "My friends do donate blood because they feel a duty to the community, and they're healthy and other people need their blood," he said.
Ober agreed: "I think people donate regularly because it is a way they can give back to the world around them. Something as purely essential as blood allows an individual to contribute something invaluable," she said.
But for every person who does donate, it seems as though there are plenty more who do not. The Red Cross Web site states that only a "small fraction" of those who are eligible to donate blood actually do.
Most students said that the main problem is apathy. "Some people don't donate because they're nervous about needles, but for the most part, I think it's just laziness, or they don't grasp the importance of it," Spitzer said.
Taylor-Escribano agreed, but thinks some people might decline to give blood for other reasons, too. "People who don't donate probably don't because of laziness, but it might be because of health factors - like being HIV positive, or having another blood illness that prohibits them from donating," he said.
Another student also agreed that laziness is pervasive: "I think that people who don't donate blood don't do it because it's inconvenient," senior David Kelley said.
But Spitzer is optimistic. "People realize it's important to give blood; if there was better advertising, more people would probably do it," he said.
Students generally had the same ideas for how to advertise: Tuftslife.com, flyering, chalking and especially word of mouth. "Word of mouth is probably the best way to let people know about a blood drive. It would be a good idea to have people who are really passionate about it spreading the word," Kerstein said.
Ober agreed. "I think that word of mouth is probably the best method of drawing donors. People will be more likely to get over any reservations [about the donating process] if they hear testimonies of the procedure's smoothness and positive repercussions," she said.
Free stuff and convenience are always important for college students, too. "I think offering incentives is one way to get people to donate, but the best way is to make it easy. Having the Tufts blood drive uphill and downhill is one way to make it more convenient," Kelley said.
