UAlbany Partners with State Task Force to Promote Organ and Tissue Donation

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ALBANY, N.Y. (April 5, 2002)-University at Albany students enrolled in a new course, Communication Campaign Practicum, are learning firsthand to create and carry out a public information campaign - and their work may save lives. The goal of the course is to execute a public relations and marketing campaign that increases organ and tissue donation among college-age students. In addition, the efforts of this "pilot class" will be reviewed by the New York State Task Force for Organ and Tissue Donation as a possible blueprint for other SUNY campuses to follow.

The students' public information campaign will correspond with National Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Week which will take place April 21 - 27. The week will begin with a kickoff press conference on Monday, April 22, with New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Antonia Novello and UAlbany President Karen R. Hitchcock. Additional activities will include a UAlbany men's basketball game, informational "tabling" sessions with a raffle, music and giveaways, as well as other events.

Currently, more than 80,000 people are on transplant waiting lists. Sixteen people die each day in the United States waiting for a life-saving organ. Each year, 15,000 people are treated with needed eye, tissue and bone donations for blindness, tumors, burns, cancer and many other life-threatening diseases and injuries.

For more information, visit https://www.albany.edu/~sl713/ualbanyorgandonor.html.

Established in 1844 and designated a center of the State University of New York in 1962, the University at Albany's broad mission of excellence in undergraduate and graduate education, research and public service engages 17,000 diverse students in eight degree-granting schools and colleges. For more information about this nationally ranked University, visit https://www.albany.edu.

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