NROTC holds blood drive

Members from GW NROTC held their second blood drive of the semester Friday in the Marvin Center. The group collected 36 units (about 36 pints) of blood to be donated to Bethesda Naval Hospital.

Most donors were members of GW NROTC.

We do not get (donations) out of the community quite enough, said senior Jason Turse, a member of the NROTC program.

The group had hoped to collect 50 units of blood for the hospital’s reserve, said GW ROTC member Greg Shelton, who helped coordinate the four-hour event.

Michele Jordan, a Georgetown University student assisting with the blood drive, explained the process to determine if a person is qualified to be a donor. NROTC battalion medics register each donor, check the donor’s vital organs, hemoglobin levels and blood pressure and ask about each donor’s background to make sure the donor’s health is not jeopardized and to ensure that the quality of the blood is adequate.

The Marvin Center room was full of computers, blood monitors and a crowd predominately dressed in white and blue.

Although the shortage is a result of the fact that many potential donors are turned down because of low blood pressure, low hemoglobin levels and tattoos.

-Daniel Mauser and Russ Rizzo

Mount Vernon to begin construction Wednesday with groundbreaking ceremony

GW’s Mount Vernon campus will hold a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday at 5 p.m. for phase one of its long-term construction plans, according to a University press release.

The ceremony will take place at Mount Vernon’s Campus Quad on Foxhall Road. GW President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, Mount Vernon Executive Dean Grae Baxter, Vice President of Academic Affairs Donald Lehman and Tribune Broadcasting Bureau Chief Cynthia Baker will be among those attending the Wednesday ceremony.

Mount Vernon’s campus plan was approved by the D.C. Board of Zoning Adjustment December 15, 1999. Phase one of the 10-year plan includes constructing new tennis courts, an underground parking lot, residence space added to the existing Somers Hall and a new softball field.

-Steven Postal