Harvard-Radcliffe Blood Drive Falls Short of 1600-Pint Goal

Amid a sheath of statistics, pepperoni pizza, and the overstuffed armchairs in Lowell House's JCR, the key organizers of this year's first Harvard-Radcliffe Blood Drive met last night to discuss why their campaign strategy had gone awry.

The eight-day-long drive, which ended Friday, produced a total of 1066 productive pints of blood, according to Red Cross Field Director Marie Courtier Diflo '83. The original goal for the drive was 1600 pints.

The blood drive did not reach to projected total despite beefed up efforts this year to stimulate a spirit of competition between upperclass houses and students of Harvard and Yale.

Blood drive organizers at the meeting said reasons for the shortfall included poor communication among coordinators, misdirected publicity, and weak timing. There was also consensus among the seven student organizers present that the effectiveness of recruitment and publicity efforts varied widely from house to house.

"It comes down to the recruitment and coordination in each house," said Bradford J. Baker '86, one of three recruitment leaders from Lowell House, the winner of this year's interhouse blood drive competition sponsored by the University Health Services.

He added that students in Lowell produced 97 pints of blood, or about one-tenth the total collection.

Mike Grossman '86, another Lowell House organizer, agreed that "there's no reason that [University] can't shatter" the set goals as Lowell House has. Both he and Baker said that their "strong-arm tactics" and "badgering" of friends and fellow house members seem to have paid off.

A technique which did not seem to pay off as well was the widely-advertised competition between Harvard and Yale, known as the "Harvard-Yale Challenge."

"I don't think it mattered", said Beth Pierce '86, head of recruitment for Eliot House.