Utah State University students have out-bled U students the past five years, but the U is determined to turn that around.
The seventh-annual Bleed Red competition, a weeklong match between USU and the U to collect the most blood donations, begins Friday. The U won the first competition when Bleed Red began, but USU has dominated ever since. Last year, the rival school won 1,234 units of blood to the U’s 1,054.
“We’re trying to take back the title,” said U spokeswoman Taunya Dressler.
The U’s problem is that USU is a much smaller campus with a central hub that almost every student passes through on their way to class, said Stanley Lloyd, community service director for the Associated Students of the University Utah. The U is planning on increasing its face-to-face advertising of the blood drive this year in order to counter USU’s advantage, he said.
ARUP Blood Services will set up four locations throughout the week where students can donate blood: inside the Union ballroom, the Crimson View restaurant, the Latter-day Saint Institute of Religion and at a Bloodmobile parked outside the University Campus Store.
Donors unable to reach campus can donate at ARUP in Murray or Research Park.
ARUP tentatively agreed to count blood donations from its Aug. 17 blood drive at Huntsman Cancer Institute toward the Bleed Red week, Lloyd said. If ARUP ultimately decides to count the early collection, the drive only collected 15 units of blood, a tiny red drop in the bucket, said ARUP Bleed Red organizer Lance Bandley.
All donations from Bleed Red will go to the University Hospital, Huntsman Cancer Hospital, Primary Children’s Medical Center and Shriners Hospitals for Children.
