The Eastern Illinois University Student Senate heard presentations on organ and tissue donations and bicycle and e-scooter thefts at its meeting on Wednesday.
Shadaye Hunnicutt, the community outreach specialist at Gift of Hope, spoke to the senators.
Gift of Hope is an organ and tissue donor network that assists in registering people for after death donation in Illinois, excluding the St. Louis region, as well as in northwestern Indiana.
Organ donation includes the heart, lungs, liver, pancreas, kidneys and intestines.
According to Hunnicutt, the organization has helped save over 30,000 lives with organ donations.
She said that the United Network for Organ Sharing is a national database that currently has 105,000 people on the waiting list, 4,500 of whom are in Illinois. A person is added to the list every nine minutes.
While 90% of people support organ donation, only 60% of people are registered as donors, according to Hunnicutt.
Hunnicutt said that the number of registered donors varies by county. Two examples provided were that 75% of Taswell County is registered and 45% of Cook County is registered.
Hunnicutt said that the reasons why numbers are low can vary.
“Part of it is education, part of it is cultural differences, which also stems from the lack of education on how the process is now, and then some of it is just not talking to family,” Hunnicutt said.
In 2024, Gift of Hope received organ donations from 526 people and tissue donations from 1,936 people. The organ donations facilitated 1,495 life-saving transplants, according to a press release.
There are two methods for registering for organ donation: registering with the secretary of state or using an online donor network.
People who register with the secretary of state will only be valid donors within the state of Illinois. People who want to apply to the national registry must use an online donor network.
Illinois passed the Drive for Life Act in 2017, allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to sign intent forms to become organ donors. Since then, Hunnicutt said over 400,000 people have used this law to become an organ donor.
According to Hunnicutt, one in 20 people will need a tissue donation at some point in their life, including bone, tendon, cornea, eye, heart valve, skin, and soft tissue donations.
Following Hunnicutt’s presentation, University Police Chief Marisol Gamboa presented to the Senate to inform them about recent bicycle and e-scooter thefts on campus.
According to Gamboa, there have been 12 bicycle and e-scooter thefts this semester, primarily involving transportation devices that were not secured.
UPD is investigating the thefts, and Gamboa said that they have identified suspects.
Gamboa said it’s important to lock up bicycles and e-scooters and to make sure that they are secured to the rack using a strong lock or chains. Additionally, some cases have involved the theft of only parts of the bicycle, rather than the entire thing.
Gamboa said that any missing bicycles or e-scooters should be reported to UPD.
“That way we can track those, and we can try to retrieve them or figure out who took it, so we can ban them off our campus,” Gamboa said.
Thefts have been happening between 12 a.m. and 4 a.m., and Gamboa said that UPD officers have been patrolling the quad on foot and on bicycle at those times.
The Senate also passed a resolution asking Eastern’s administration to reconsider the contract nonrenewals at WEIU-TV, following last meeting’s media presentations.
Jason Coulombe can be reached at 581-2812 or at jmcoulombe@eiu.edu.
