By Kareena Dhillon
Online Features Editor
The University of California, Los Angeles hosted a blood drive at Mira Costa on Feb. 7 in the Fisher Gymnasium from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The lack of sufficient blood bags in contrast with the number of students signed up proved disastrous as many students missed multiple class periods due to the lack of organization.
The annual UCLA blood drive is held by the Associated Student Body in association to UCLA. In order to participate, donors are required to be at least 16 years of age, have a normal iron level, and weigh at least 110 pounds. For many, the blood drive took up to 3-4 hours, a majority of which was waiting in line.
According to sophomore Megan Garringer, there should have been more communication between ASB and UCLA about the amount of blood bags needed, considering that each of the 55 members of ASB is required to sign up eight donors. Many students are willing to miss class in order to help save lives; thus, students missed periods throughout the day while waiting to give blood, only to learn that there was not enough supplies for them do so. Students should have been made aware of the time they would have to give up in order to make the commitment.
Many students wanted to sign up to donate blood in order to help others, but were not able to, due to the lack of blood bags, said blood drive coordinator ASB senior Sarah Childs. If ASB encourages students and faculty to sign up, they should prepare for the amount of people going to donate. Although the blood drive is a worthy cause, not being able to donate blood is a waste of time and resources and does not properly utilize the office hours time that the school sets aside for drills.
This year, Costa only has 25 different days dedicated to office hours for the 2017-2018 year, and some of those days have been altered due to school-facilitated events. While blood drives are necessary and vital to the good work that Costa ASB strive to do, they should be scheduled on non-office hour days so students can get the most out of office hours.
On the same day as the blood drive, a lockdown drill was held; this changed the already shortened schedule slightly, affecting A.M. Office Hours as well. Due to the drill, second period was an hour and five minutes, which was 25 minutes longer than every other class, and A.M. office hours was shortened significantly, causing less time for the blood drive. It is not uncommon for Costa to have drills, but scheduling blood drives on days of drills creates unnecessary chaos within the schedule, disrupting class time.
According to ASB member Francesca Bennett, the blood drive is done on office hours for the students who cannot miss any of their classes so that they have time to donate. This would only make sense if students were assured their time would be well spent donating blood rather than waiting aimlessly. Therefore, the collaboration between UCLA and ASB needs to be further improved so that the blood drive is efficient and respectful to students’ time.
According to blood drive coordinator ASB senior Sarah Childs, ASB was notified of the shortage in the afternoon and acted immediately in order to try and allow everyone who signed up to give blood. They turned away incoming students and those waiting were sent back to class, said Childs. Those who were in line to donate but were unable will receive a movie ticket on behalf of UCLA. Although these students were turned away, it was good that ASB did not have them wait and they immediately sent students back to class. Students with the desire to do good and help others were quickly stopped after being turned away after waiting for so long in line. To avoid future occurrences of blood drive disorganization, there should be better efficiency within the blood drive and better communication between ASB and UCLA for future events.
The lack of sufficient donation supplies at the blood drive compared to the amount of students who signed up showed the lack of responsibility and efficiency from ASB and UCLA, particularly in how the two communicated to prepare for the event. While the blood drive obviously has good intentions, it always seems to not be properly organized, leading to inconvenience.
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