You get a bruise.
They probably will feel better than a patient who has to postpone surgery due to a lack of available blood feels. Like this cancer patient.
It might do some of these self absorbed college kids good to roll up their sleeve and give a unit.
Ooh, the emotional argument. Convincing - especially since by it, grabbing people off the street and taking their blood against their will is ethical.
I would consider this unethical behavior by a teacher.
Extra credit isn’t inherently unethical, as long as everyone has a fair shot at it. I consider this particular exercise to be unethical because of the nature of the extra credit; it is not at all related to the academic nature of the class your professor is teaching.
I won’t comment on the grading scale – as long as 5 extra points on the grade is ok with the administration, then whatever.
Offering 5 points extra credit for writing an essay on a topic related to the class is perfectly fine.
Offering 5 points extra credit for engaging in an entirely unrelated activity outside of the scope of that class? That’s unethical; if for absolutely no other reason than because it provides an advantage on a global scale (the GPA) unavailable to students of any other class for performing an extracurricular and, by definition, voluntary act.
To detract a bit from the OP, and ignoring the ethical debate of the nature of the assignment, I would also say that the options provided are unequal. Some people can’t donate blood, either for health, religious, or completely irrelevant reasons (practice of sexual orientation comes to mind). To say that spending 15-20 minutes donating blood at a pre-selected location at a pre-selected time is equal to finding a volunteer opportunity, signing up for it, and spending 2 hours volunteering is simply unfair.
Maybe. But they shouldn’t be rewarded with extra credit points in an entirely unrelated class for doing so.
I agree, especially since I give credit for blood donation in my high school Government classes. Of course, it’s a bit different. We require 10 hours of community service as part of the course, and I count giving blood as 2 hours. But to just toss it in as part of a college course…no way.
Please provide a cite where the red cross or the college went out with guns and forced people to donate blood.
Extra credit is voluntary at least where I went to school.
Need a little more straw?
Don’t you realize, two hours of community service or volunteering is much more of a burden than giving blood for 15-20 minutes. You should be ashamed of yourself, it’s almost as if you’re forcing your students to give blood instead of helping out the community. :rolleyes:
I agree: I think it’s wrong to offer a substantial amount of class credit (extra or otherwise) for something that is not relevant to the subject matter of the class.
What self-absorbed college kids? Where? Oh, you mean those ones over at Stereotype University?
Could you expand on this? Are you saying that students who already know the system and know why they are ineligible would knowingly lie to pass eligibility? That alone assumes that the students, who likely have not given blood before, are aware of the disqualifying criteria. This would make the students’ ethics far more questionable than the professor’s.
I will admit this raises an interesting question. I now know that I am disqualified for having lived in England for 2.5 years, so I no longer attend the blood drives. But how about the student who goes to give, but finds out s/he is ineligible. Will they still be given the 5 points?
I had a friend who was in a frat there. The parties kick ass.
Hadn’t thought of that one, but you’re absolutely right.
Add to it veterans status and national origin - I can’t donate because I was stationed in Europe for two years in the 1990s, and this ban affects people who lived there as civilians as well, obviously.
About the difference in blood giving/volunteer time:
Time to donate blood:
5 min to fill out forms, detailing in writing many things that could make you ineligible
5-10 minutes to review forms with intake nurse and be given blood pressure and blood iron tests
15-20 minutes to give blood
20 minutes to sit drinking your orange juice in full view of everyone
that’s 50 minutes, plus any waiting in line time. Considering that the blood bank probably doesn’t want to manage a volunteer time of less than two hours, the two options sound pretty even. Especially when they’re going to need volunteers to pass out the orange juice for the campus collection site. A quick student might be able to arrange to have their volunteer stint right on campus.
The blood donation may be a little shorter, but you do get a poke in the arm and you have to sit and answer a series of “have you ever had sex with anyone who. . .” questions. I think it evens out. Oh, and you get a poke in the finger for the iron level test.
Has anyone suggested an alternative, on-campus volunteer stint to the professer and had it denied? If he’s open to other options, then I’m not seeing much connection to basic psych, but I have no problem with the idea of extra credit for field activities.
The prof would be doing everyone a favor if he provided a list of disqualifications ahead of time. I think you have to not have taken aspirin within 48 hours, but don’t take my word for it.
Do not ever lie in order to give blood. Very. Bad. Thing.
You must have some pretty fast veins if giving blood only takes 15-20 minutes for you.
I’m barely through the filling out form/interview process in that time. Plus, there’s the waiting between every step of the blood donating process and followed by the mandatory “don’t even think of leaving for the next 15 minutes” time (or “juice and cookie time” for the more positive-minded) tacked on at the very end.
In my experience, donating blood takes about an hour. Equating it to an hour of other volunteer work doesn’t bother me that much. Using it as a small extra-credit incentive (say .05 maybe even .1 on a 4-point scale) doesn’t bother me, because I’ve seen extra-credit given for lots of frivolous things, and the student who doesn’t want to give time or blood can still just do the assigned work and be competitive.
But 1/3 of a point is too much, as is the amount of time that the prof requires for non-blood volunteer work.
Can you elaborate on why you believe this to be a “very. bad. thing.”? I’ll concede that the ends probably don’t justify the means for a person who fibs to put their conscience at ease, but consider:
One of the Red Cross’ criteria for ineligibility is
Their reason for this exclusion falls under the “HIV/AIDS” category in the list of disqualifications. Now, assuming nothing else disqualifies you, say you received oral sex from a man on January 1, 1977. In the past ten years, you have had HIV tests performed every six months, and are HIV free.
Part of me says don’t donate. An even larger part of me says that fibbing on this criteria does not constitute a “very. bad. thing.”
It’s not a strawman argument to point out that any argument that could be used to justify any damn thing is probably a poor metric upon which to assess the ethics of an action. This remains equally true whether or not anyone has used the argument that way; it’s pointing out a flaw in the argument.
They were psychology majors–no harm, no foul. 
Seriously though…
Entirely inappropriate from all angles suggested above.
You tell a student who has mastered the subject, near the end of the course, that the rest of her classmates are going to catch up with her unless she agrees to an (albeit minor) medical procedure?
Sheesh.
I realize it -says- “sexual contact”, but can’t “anal” be inferred?
Yllaria, honestly now, wouldn’t you find it at all unfair if your classmates had this option but you didn’t. Instead, to get the same benefit, you had to serve beverages at a blood bank, pick up trash along a highway, clean dishes at a homeless kitchen, or some such thing for more than twice as long. Even if the efforts lasted the same amount of time, the efforts themselves are not equal. If I stocked cans at a food bank for two hours, do you think it should count if I spent the majority of the time just sitting there like a blood donor? (Don’t get me wrong. I applaud blood donors. I wish I could be one again.)
Unless you can back up this statement
it is a strawman. A huge strawman.