Blood is a valuable resource. It keeps us healthy, viable and living.

Donating this resource is a selfless and fantastic thing to do; key word “donating.”

Every semester the greek community is harassed to donate blood in order to get points for their respective pairings. While this does increase the amount of blood collected, it is unethically done. There would not be a Homecoming semen drive; that would be crossing the line. But forcing members of the greek community to give up some of their life source is apparently totally OK.

Yes, there is an option to volunteer if a member does not feel comfortable donating, but these volunteer slots are extremely limited and time consuming.

As a full-time student with an internship, executive position in my chapter and campus involvement, I do not have time to stand around for two hours and pretend to pass out cookies.

What about members of the greek community who get deferred; their time and effort only earns them half a homecoming point while a donor gets a full point. To receive the other half point, the deferred have to “volunteer” — again standing around pretending to hand out cookies.

Being obviously marked as someone who was deferred raises questions as to why this student was turned away. Is there a mysterious medical issue, a secret tattoo, a hidden homosexual relationship? The deferred should not be separated from those healthy enough to donate by being put in the volunteer holding tank.

Forced blood donation. Not cool.