daily nebraskan
Wednesday, march 15, 1978
page 10
African mission is new clinic for Health Center doctor
By Deb Shanahan
Last week, UNL students were lined outside his office
doors awaiting flu vaccinations. Next week, a different
group will see hiin for malaria vaccinations.
But Africa will be a welcome change for Dr. Ralph
Ewert, former chief of staff at the University Health
Center. Ewert is taking a five- to six-month leave of ab
sence to do missionary work for the African Inter-Menon-nite
Mission.
Ewert, who has been at UNL almost six years, said
this will not be a new experience for him.
"I was in Africa 10 years working under the same mis
ion I'll be working under now," he said. He will assume
the duties of another doctor on furlough, he said.
Ewert said he will work in the same general area, but
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this time in the village of Tshikapa in Zaire. Zaire, the
fourth largest country in Africa, is in the central part of
the continent just below the equator, he explained.
Ewert said he expected his duties to include work in
clinics for prenatal care and vaccinations, treating tropi
cal diseases and performing surgery.
"There are only two doctors in the hospital with about
150 beds, so there will be considerable emergency sur
gery," he said.
The doctor-patient ratio in Africa is about one doctor
for every 50,000 people, he said. This compares with
one for every 750 in the United States, Ewert said, adding
there is a difference in the type of equipment available in
the two countries.
"The equipment (in Africa) is kind of primitive com
pared to U.S. standards," he said. "I'm taking some with
me, but not a lot because of baggage limitations."
Ewert, who attended the University of Nebraska
Medical Center, studied tropical medicine and diseases at
Antwerp, Belgium.
Although Ewert said he will confront four main lan
guages and hundreds of local tribal or trade languages,
language has not been a problem in his work. He spent a
year in Brussels studying French, Zaire's national lan
guage. Ewert described the village people as friendly and
receptive to missionary doctors.
"The people come to us because they know our treat
ment is effective," he said.
"We only treat symptoms."
The people still go to a witch doctor to treat the
causes, he said.
African doctors now are being trained, Ewert said,
adding that they have the same probelm as Nebraska.
"Everyone wants to go to the big city. Nobody wants
to practice in the bush," he said, explaining that bush
hospitals generally are maintained by mission doctors.
Although Ewert's family lived in Africa during his
first visit, they will not go this time, Ewert said.
Ewert's family life during ten years in Africa was
quite different than life in Lincoln, he said. The chil
dren were taught by his wife and a nurse until fourth
grade. They then went to boarding school with children
of other missionaries, embassy workers and international
business people.
Ewert said the family did a lot of reading in their spare
time because there was no television. In addition, there
was always a soccer game going on, he said.
Although he will return in September "in time for
the fall rush," Ewert said, he and his wife would like to
return to Africa after their four children are grown.
"Without the responsibility of raising a family, these
could be the most rich years of our lives," he said.
Construction bids for tractor test labs
below Legislature's $1 million budget
Bids were returned Tuesday for construction on
East Campus of the Agricultural Engineering Annex, for
which SI million has been appropriated by the Nebraska
Legislature.
Physical Plant Director Harley Schrader said the bids
will be studied and a recommendation made to the Uni
versity of Nebraska Board of Regents. The bids fell below
the budgeted cost of the building, he said.
William Splinter said the new building, to be located
north of the Tractor Testing Track, will house the Tractor
Testing Laboratory. The machinery and motors labs and
the electronics and departmental research shops now lo
cated in the Ag Engineering building also will be moved,
he said.
Splinter said department growth over the years de
manded expansion. The Ag Engineering Building was built
with office space for a staff of six, Splinter said. The de
partment's 30-person staff is crowded into former class
rooms. The building has no central heating nor air-conditioning,
and lacks insulation and weathertight windows, he
said. A request is pending before the Nebraska Legislature
for funds to remodel the building. Splinter said. The re
modeling would move all classrooms to the first floor
and all offices to the second floor, which Splinter said
would be a more efficient arrangement.
The building now housing the Tractor Test Lab, which
will be torn down when the Annex is complete, was made
obsolete with bigger farm machinery, Splinter said.
"The size of today's ag equipment is such that we can't
even get it in the building," he said, adding that the
annex will have 20-foot doors and clear-span interior.
Splinter explained that state law requires that all
tractors sold in Nebraska first be tested by the lab to
verify horsepower and other performance claims. The lab
is booked solid into 1979, he said. Some tractor models
have gone out of production before they could be tested.
The lab's findings are internationally respected, and it
has tested tractors from Poland, West Germany, England
and the Soviet Union.
Splinter said farm tractors are becoming so large that
a 400-horsepower dynamometer will be replaced by a
1 ,000-horsepower model when the lab moves to the
Annex.
A 450-horsepower tractor to be tested this summer will
be tested at the Lincoln Municipal Airport because it will
not fit on the track, Splinter said.
ASUN
NOTICE OF ELECTION
March 15. 1978
Offices Up for Election:
1. ASUN President, First Vice-President, and Second
Vice President.
2. ASUN Senators in the College of: Agriculture, Archi
tecture, Arts and Sciences, Business, Engineering,
Graduate, Home Economics, Nursing, Professional
(Dentistry and Law) and Teachers.
3. College Advisory Boards in the College of Agriculture,
Arts and Sciences, Home Economics, and Teachers.
Voting Procedures:
1. Each student must present hisher own student I.D.
card, with a current registration label on the back, to
to the poll worker. The act of giving the I.D. card to
the poll worker is the attempt to vote.
2. Each student will sign hisher own name on the roster
of the college in which heshe is enrolled.
3. Each voter will be marked with ultra-violet ink.
4. Each student I.D. card will be marked.
5. No student shall vote or attempt to vote more than
once in the election, nor shall any student aid in such
an attempt.
6. Violation of any voting regulation will result in prose
cution in Student Court.
Polling Places and Hours:
Polls will be located in the Nebraska Union, the East
Campus Union, the southwest entrance of Nebraska Hall,
and in Ferguson Hall. All polls will be open from
8 00 a.m. to 8 00 p.m. on March 15. 1978.
Procedure for Disabled Ballots:
1 . Disabled ballots- Disabled shall mean unable to attend
class due to confinement at the Student Health Center
or a hospital. Students so disabled shall call the ASUN
secretary before noon on election day, and arrange
jnents shall be made for voting.
Complaints:
Students wishing to file complaints against any candidate
or party for possible violations of the Electoral E com mis
sion's regulations must do so by 4 00 p m , March 16.
1978 in the ASUN office. Compalmts must be in written
form .
To the Candidates
Financial forms from all official candidates andor parties
must be turned in by 4 00 p m. March 15, to the ASUN
secretary. For a write-in candidate to be eligible for of
fice. heshe must file a financial form with the ASUN
secretary by 4 00 p m., March 17, 1978
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