Issue 61, Volume 121
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
UT loses blood competition, donors win Justin Joo Staff Writer Although UT ultimately lost the “Battle of Orange and Blue” blood drive against the University of Kentucky, the school still greatly contributed to a good cause. The final score was UT having made a total of 3,107 donations to UK’s 3,159. The competition occurred through last week and was organized by the Medic Regional Blood Center. Felicia Rhodes, a donor resource coordinator and paramedic at the blood drive, had noted on Thursday that the Vols were behind the Wildcats in terms of donation numbers, but had hoped for a final push to win, a push that never came. At the time, she suspected part of the lack of enthusiasm might have been because of the lackluster football season. “A lot of the students are down right now because of the things that have been going on with the football team and the coach, the losing aspect,” Rhodes explained. Nervousness can also be an obstacle for those donating for the first time, be it from a fear of needles or just facing the unknown procedure that’s about to take place. Rhodes said that there were many first time donors coming to the “Battle of the Orange and Blue.” She said that many of them were definitely a little nervous about donating for the first time. “Their anxiety is up a little bit,” Rhodes laughed. “It shows in their blood pressure whenever we check it over there.” But Rhodes said that once a new donor gets an idea of what is about to happen, they tend to calm down. “Our phlebotomists are really good
at talking to them and letting them know what’s going to happen. They’re very, very good at explaining it, especially if they have questions.” Sarah Doktyzc, an undecided freshman, was once one of those nervous first time donors. In high school, Doktyzc missed the chance to donate for the first time because of a tennis match. So when the first university blood drive competition against Florida started earlier this year, she jumped on the occasion. During that first time, she wasn’t nervous so much about the needle, but rather about not knowing how the blood donation process would occur. “It’s not like I love needles, but I don’t have a phobia of them,” she joked. “I’m kind of neutral on needles.” Returning to donate for last week’s competition with the University of Kentucky, Doktyzc no longer had the concern she did a few months ago. “I’m not nervous anymore,” she said. “I think I was just nervous because I had never done it before. I didn’t know what it was going to be like, but now I do.” Rhodes said that she had seen many returning students like Doktyzc coming to both the Florida and Kentucky competitions. “I’m seeing a lot of people from the last competition that we had against Florida,” said Rhodes. And not just for the incentives to donate either. Medic offered a variety of “gifts” to donors, including items from Papa John’s Pizza, Rita’s Italian Ice and Texas Roadhouse. Rhodes said that most return donors were coming back because of what those blood donations are needed for. “Some students that have previously donated, they understand where some of these blood products are going to,” said Rhodes. “If they could just see some of the kids at Children’s Hospital,
File Photo • The Daily Beacon
A donor gives blood in the UC. The Volunteers lost the annual challange against the Wildcats during the “Battle of the Orange and Blue.” a lot of people would turn their heads and try to donate more.” One of those return donors was Madilynn McCollum, a junior in chemistry. She is one of those students that Rhodes was talking about: a student not enticed by incentives but rather by the need for blood donations. “I was looking on the website,” McCollum said, “and it said (Medic) needed 300 donors a day. And I said, ‘Well, I’ll be one of them.’” She added with a chuckle, “I was just sitting in class, and I was like, ‘Well what am I going to do today? I guess I’ll donate blood.’ I’ll do my duty as a citizen.” McCollum had previously donated in high school three years ago and decided that it was time to do it again. She recalled, like many others, that she
was nervous about going through with it, primarily because of the needle and the horror stories that her friends were telling her. “It’s kind of a big old needle going into your arm,” she said. “My friends had donated blood, too, and they were like, ‘Oh my God, this girl passed out!’ And then I’m like, ‘I hope I don’t pass out.’” But for Margaret Grigsby, a journalism grad student, those horror stories hit a little closer to home. During her undergraduate years, Grigsby had been a fairly frequent blood donor and even joined a registry to be a potential bone marrow donor. It had been a year and a half since Grigsby donated blood, but she was inspired to go again by one of her public speaking student’s speech on blood
Concern for native fish species begins to grow
donations. Having never been afraid or squeamish about donating blood before, Grigsby was quite surprised when she started to feel “pass out dizzy” and then vomited near the end of the procedure. “I was in there, and it was almost over, but then I’m feeling dizzy and then. … ” Grigsby said, followed by vomiting sound effect. “That was awful … and really great and terrible and embarrassing.” Grigsby said during the donation she hadn’t been nervous or afraid. She doesn’t know if the experience will affect her donating blood again in the future. But there is a bright side for Grigsby. In her own words, “At least I completed it!”
GSS works on new leave policy Justin Joo Staff Writer
• Photo courtesy of conservationfisheries.org
Jackson Sibley Contributor The Little River in Blount County boasts perhaps the best recreation of any waterway in East Tennessee. On any given summer weekend, its banks and currents are littered with hikers, swimmers, fly fishermen, tubers and photographers. These outdoors enthusiasts come for a taste of the wild, but few are aware of the rare treasure that swims around their feet. This river is the home of the marbled darter (Etheostoma marmorpinnum), an animal found nowhere else in the world. The marbled darter is a fish closely related to perch and walleye. It is small, seldom breaking three inches in length, and its coloration closely matches that of the creek bed, so it is easy to understand why it may get overlooked.
Today, this little fish is in trouble. Agricultural practices and other human activities over the last hundred years have altered the dynamics of the river. Silt, mud and deep pools have replaced gravel, slab rock and riffles — things that the marbled darter requires to spawn. Toxins from road runoff and dams supplement these issues. Left to its own means, this rare fish would likely diminish into extinction. Enter Pat Rakes and J.R. Shute, graduates of UT and true fish fanatics. They founded the Knoxville-based Conservation Fisheries, Inc. (CFI), a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of aquatic biodiversity. Within the walls of their modest cinderblock building is a sizeable fish hatchery operation focused on the propagation and reintroduction of rare fishes, including the marbled darter. See FISHING on Page 2
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The Graduate Student Senate has begun drafting a policy that could potentially allow graduate students to take a medical leave of absence. The proposed Graduate Student Leave Policy would give full-time graduate students a chance to “maintain their full-time, registered status, as well as to facilitate their return to full participation in their coursework, teaching, and research in a seamless manner.” In addition, the policy would establish that the leave of absence would not affect graduate students’ annual evaluation of assistantship status or the completion of their graduate degree. Graduate students that receive stipend-support would be able to continue to receive funding. Martin Walker, the anthropology representative of GSS, is the main writer of the policy’s draft. Walker said that the reason for trying to design a leave of absence policy is because without one, graduate students have no solid plan of action when a major medical issue arises.
“As of right now,” Walker explained, “if you are a graduate student with an assistantship (and) you need time off, you’ll have to leave your assistantship, in theory, unless your department’s really lax about it.” With a solid policy in place, Walker and GSS are hoping that there will be either an across-the-board plan for the grad program or at least a template for each individual department to create their own leave policy. Walker stressed that GSS has only written the first draft of the leave of absence policy and revisions are expected. He hopes that a final draft will be complete sometime mid-December and be presented to GSS during the January meeting. “We’re going to change some of the wording around. Parts of it are very specific and parts of it are very general,” Walker said. As it is now, the proposed leave policy would allow six weeks of leave for the graduate student for the purpose of childbirth or adoption. If both parents are full-time graduate students at UT, only one parent would be able to take the leave of absence. See SENATE on Page 2
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utdailybeacon.com For more sports content, check out Lauren Kittrell’s column on coach Derek Dooley at our website, www.utdailybeacon.com.