Moreover, the University’s contribution to the blood supply is exemplary. Through an innovative model of day-long, multi-site drives that demand cooperation between blood banks, our Community Service Office has vastly increased blood donations over the past three years. The result is that tens of thousands of lives have been saved.

But no blood drive in America is perfect, as any gay man can attest. Since 1983, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has prohibited blood donations from any man who has had sexual contact with a man one or more times since 1977. This policy is wrongful and discriminatory.

The policy was enacted at the height of the American AIDS panic. Outwardly, it was intended as a safeguard against contamination of the blood supply from HIV, which disproportionately affects men who have sex with men. In reality, however, it was and is an example of homophobia on an institutional level.

The FDA policy is prejudiced because it treats men who have sex with men as a high-risk group for HIV instead of people, both gay and straight, who have high-risk sex.

The discriminatory nature of this policy is most apparent in another FDA policy that permits men and women who have had sexual contact with an opposite-sex HIV-positive partner to donate blood one year after the contact. While heterosexuals who engage in high-risk sex get out of jail free, men who have sex with men, whether high-risk or not, face a lifetime ban.

The FDA should revise its ban in accordance with recommendations made in 2006 by the American Association of Blood Banks, America’s Blood Centers and the American Red Cross. These groups advise that men who have sex with men should be deferred from donating blood for the same amount of time as heterosexuals who are identified as at risk, and this approach is both sensible and just.

The University should continue its blood drives but take more action to end the FDA policy. In the short term, the Community Service Office should distribute notices to all blood donors explaining both the University’s commitment to blood donation and its condemnation of discrimination against gay people.

In the long term, University members should get tested for HIV in accordance with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) 2006 recommendation that all Americans take an HIV test. The best way to end AIDS-related discrimination is to end AIDS, and to achieve this, HIV testing is crucial.

Finally, University members should continue to donate blood and feel good about it, but donors should also be conscious that their ability to give is a privilege that is unjustly denied to others. Students who wish to express solidarity with their gay peers might consider donning equality buttons alongside their stickers professing “I Donated.”

The recent blood drives in September and November managed to collect more than 1,000 units of blood. Organizers hope that the drives throughout the entire school year will collect more than 2,000 units total.

Last year was the first time the University had a large single-day blood drive, and drives throughout the year collected more than 1,800 units. The year before, however, fewer than 700 units of blood were collected.

This year, the Community Service Office (CSO) also set up a leadership project in which the office can further support all the student-run community service activities by providing leadership training for student leaders.

The training will consist of different sessions to best help each individual student group contribute to the community.

“[The leadership project will] maximize positive impact and minimize harm [done by the student groups,” CSO Director Stephanie Kurtzman said.

Some sessions will focus on a certain issue, such as hunger, while others will be focused on a general approach, like philanthropy.

Next week’s session will focus on organizational structure of a student group. More than 25 students have already signed up for the session.

One other new step the CSO has taken this year is to have community service mentors. There are mentors in Brookings and JKL residential colleges this year, and the CSO hopes to expand the program in the future.

The mentors work with both the CSO and the Office of Residential Life to increase participation in community service activities among students in their residential colleges. They hope to increase attendance at already-existing activities and plan their own activities for their residents.

According to Kurtzman, the blood drives, like all other community service activities, are organized by University students.

“All of [the community service activities are] due to student leadership,” Kurtzman said. “Even if it’s the initiative of the CSO, it’s still student-run.”

CSO, consisting of three professional staff members, not only assists community service groups, but also offers its services to any student group that wants to do a service event. CSO has helped Ashoka, the University’s South Asian students association, with its annual Gandhi Day of Service, even though community service is not Ashoka’s primary goal.

Other community service activities, in addition to the blood drives, have shown much success so far this year, said Kurtzman.

Each One Teach One has expanded and now operates with 92 tutors. It has also been strengthened with a new curriculum and increased communication between the tutors to best help the students.

Additionally, many more service trips, known as Alternative Break trips, are being offered. There are more than 30 trips registered to take place during this school year.

Kurtzman is very pleased with the increase in trip offerings, as she finds the trips to be great opportunities to engage in community service.

“[This is] exciting for us because we think [the service trips] are valuable and it’s important for the students to have this opportunity,” Kurtzman said.

Freshman Ingold Huang, who receives e-mail newsletters from the CSO about community service events occurring on campus, said he finds the newsletters informative, although he has not participated in any activities yet this year besides Service First.

He said he would attend activities with his residential college, Lee/Beaumont, if it had a community service mentor.

“I would maybe participate, depending on how much work I have and what other commitments I have to other activities and friends,” Huang said.

The idea of renewable energy has become the theme of the University’s blood drive.

“We came up with the slogan, ‘Renewable Energy,’ when we started to think about how blood is one of the easiest and most tangible ways to help save lives,” blood drive coordinator Michael Dango said. “Blood is the fuel that keeps us going, and it’s easy to share. We like the idea that blood donation can become a commitment people can ‘renew’ every 56 days.”

The blood drive will be held at the Gargoyle in Mallinckrodt Center, Ursa’s Fireside and the Swamp. Donating stations have also been set up on the Medical Campus and West Campus.

Dango, a junior, noted the accessibility of these sites, and said the only thing people need to do now is to donate.

“Every two seconds, someone needs blood. That means more than a third of us will end up needing a blood transfusion some day,” he said. “One single blood donation makes a tangible difference in someone’s life. In fact, one blood donation can save three lives, be-cause blood is separated into three components—red blood cells, platelets and plasma—each of which can go toward a person and a good cause.”

For Dango, donating blood is especially important at this time of year, but few go through the effort.

“The need for blood is constant, especially with the upcoming holiday travels that increase accidents and the need for donations. Sadly, 60 percent of the U.S. population is eligible to donate, but only five percent does,” he said.

In addition, Dango said that college students are in good enough health to donate, and should view it as a sort of obligation.

“Students should consider donating blood, because I think it’s really…a civil responsibility,” Dango said. “There are lots of people who can’t donate, and there are lots of people who need donations, so it just makes sense to take an hour out of our day to help save a life.”

The blood drive encourages potential donors to sign up online for appointments at www.communityservice.wustl.edu/donateblood/schedule/.

Those who have already signed up to donate, or are thinking about donating, should remember to eat foods high in iron, such as spinach or raisins, and drink a large amount of water to replace the fluid volume lost when donating. Donors should also eat a meal before going to donate and eat a snack after donating.