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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 1986)
Daily Nebraskan Friday, November 21, 1986 Editorial JeffKorbelik, Editor, 472,1766 James Rogers, Editorial Page Editor Gene Gentrup, Managing Editor Tammy Kaup, Associate News Editor Todd von Kampen, Editorial Page Assistant Nebn&kan Unlvtrtlly of Ntbraika-Llncoln Page 4 No money for gays UNL can't afford new group On Dec. 2, the Union Board will decide the fate of a programming committee for gays and lesbians. The commit tee, initiated by the Gay Les bian Student Association, already has gained approval from the University Program Council's Executive Board for formation and financing. The committee would be a part of UPC-City. The Daily Nebraskan urges the Union Board to refuse the proposal for one major reason: The committee doesn't merit funding because it only would represent approximately 30 peo ple in GSLA. If the committee is formed, it should not fall under UPC-City, but rather under the American Minority Council. For the record, university stu dents pay $6.38 in Fund A fees to help support four organizations. Of that money, $2.99 goes to UPC, $2.38 to ASUN, 96 cents to the Daily Nebraskan and 50 cents to the Nebraska State Student Association. UPC is divided into three sub councils: UPC-City, UPC-East and the American Minority Council. They are responsible for social, cultural and entertainment pro grams. Special Events, a UPC-City Committee, has a yearly budget of $565, the lowest on City. Talks and Topics carries $20,000, the highest. Most of the City Committees have between $4,000 to $5,000. All these bodies program events for the entire campus. The American Minority Coun Admission unnecessary Hospital policies create expenses The relationship between doctors, patients, hospitals and quality medical care is changing, but much too slowly. A recent study released in the widely respected New England Journal of Medicine estimates that upwards of 40 percent of hospital admissions were unne cessary. That's four out of every 10 hospital admissions. The cost to patients and society should be mearsured in terms of health as well as money. Although the study did not even attempt to estimate the cost of the unne cessary procedures, the finan cial toll must be staggering. But most likely it's the finan cial cost that is one part of the problem. After all, the patients' expenditures are hospitals' re ceipts. If 40 percent of hospital admissions are unnecessary, then, in their absence, the percentage of empty hospital beds would be very high. What the statistics indicate is that over the last decade or two a tremendous overexpar.rjcn of hospital space occurred in the health industry. One way to pay for this overexpansion is by increasing the admission rate of patients even if patients could get the same care en an outpa cil emphasizes programming for UNL's ethnic communities. AMC contains six committees with budgets between $1,000 and $3,000. Rodney A. Bell II, GSLA presi dent, said if approved by Union Board, the committee would ask for 5 percent of UPC-City's budget or $6,138. The budget cannot be formulated until the committee has been accepted. Bell said, based on a national survey, that 10 percent of the UNL popula tion, or 2,400 students, is homo- S6XU&1 Angela Swantek, UPC-City president, said the 10 percent figure comes from a "universal" statistic that has been applied to university campuses. Bell and Swantek called the figure con servative. Frankly, Union Board's decision should not be made based on the applied number, an actual number should have been solicited. Six thousand dollars is a hard number to swallow, considering it would only serve the 20 to 30 students in GSLA. Bell said the committee may help some homo sexuals "come out of the closet." Programming would be for all UNL students, he said. But past programming has shown attend ance to be low. About 200 stu dents attended activities for Gay Student Month, their highest attended activity. The number should be much higher to war rant funding. Finally, should the GayLes bian committee be approved, what will stop other organiza tions from petitioning UPC? tient basis or at the doctor's office. The cost of overuse is not only in terms of money. Hosptials aren't real healthy places to be around. After all, there are a lot of sick people in hospitals. Stu dies indicate that many hospi talized patients acquire diseases at the hospital as a result of the hospitalization. Given a figure of 40 percent unnecessary hospitalizations, that means that tens of thousands of Americans are getting sick un necessarily every year because of their unnecessary hospitalization. Now that's really bad. Changing payment systems doesn't seem to help. When the patients had to pay part of their hospitalizations, there was no significant difference between , the rates of necessary and unne cessary hospitalization. The only real solution for the problem is for patients to get more actively invovled in their own treatment and communicate to their doc tors what their expectations are. If patients take doctors off their pedestals and get involved in their own treatment, it will cer tainly save their money, and may preseve their health as well. " i 1 1 "1 I Fi U . S T VOLUME A I ! CO f j 1 vM)TOS WHAT i A 1 HAPPENED IN M. ' J S j Pro-lifers resort to Abortion protects the unborn from entering L ast Thursday night Kathryn Marie Kersenbrock (call her Katie) came into this world. I've never met Katie (although I hope to some day) or her parents, and her birth didn't cause much of a stir outside of her family. The reason I think it's kind of neat is because she was born ou my birthday, Someday she and I will have a wonder- ful celebration, Yes, the birth of a child is occasion for celebration or at least it should be. I'm sure Katie will have a wonderful life because she has parents who love and care for her. But sometimes child ren are born into families that can't love them and can't care for them. That's something opponents of abor tion tend to either ignore or not care about. A column in this paper earlier this week mentioned that those who are pro-choice on the abortion issue have so-called "hardened hearts." I don't think of myself as having a "hardened heart." Nor do I consider myself a "baby killer." Abortion is a complex issue. It is not black and white. You can't just say, "Thou shalt not kill" and leave it at that. What about the women who had illegal abortions before 1973 and died? While we're on the subject, why is it that the same congressmen who lead Three can be more than company; they can also be (co)educational I n the past four years, my original Abel Hall roommate, Steve, and I have lived with three different women. Our sophomore year we moved in with Luanne one of Tekamah's most notorious teen hell-raisers and Sharon, a Casper, Wyo., native who pro vided that mother figure we needed during our first year off campus. This year Luanne, and Sharon are gone, but Cindy has moved in. And today, I reflect on four years of what I call "sex education." I missed out on having a sister, so these three women filled that void. They taught me how to bake chicken (cover it, Ad, or the moisture leaks out). They taught me everything I know about football. They reproached me when I treated a female friend badly. The lessons that first emerged were the more practical ones. Rule No. 1: Never leave the toilet seat up. Several women, I've learned, don't look down at the toilet before sitting down. They expect the previous person to have put it back down after going to the bathroom. Luanne told us the outcry against abortion are the one voting for aid to Contras? Apparently killing babies is wrong American babies at least but Nicaraguan men, women and children are okay. That logic escapes me. The Bible does have some gems in it, but to realistically expect it to have all the answers to the problems that beset the modern world is a little like setting out from Lincoln with one of Lewis and Clark's maps and expecting to find Portland. Geoff Goodwin The real question to be addressed is what kind of world an unwanted child will be born into. Where is the justice in forcing a mother to have a child who won't be wanted and won't be cared for? Isn't there enough misery in the world without adding more? The tone of the earlier column would have you believe that pro-choice forces are out cruising the streets, looking for pregnant women to kidnap and carry she almost had to yell for help one night when she fell victim to the unpro tected jaws of the porcelain god. By the time Cindy moved in, Steve and I had learned to leave the seat down, but it stayed down when we, too, went to the bathroom. We told Cindy she had her choice: falling in or putting up with a little yellow wetness. Ad Hudler Cindy, Luanne and Sharon let Steve and me know if they didn't like or trust thewomenwe were datirg. They pointed out the ones they thought were prone to pregnancy and marriage. If they caught us lying on the phone, they I've learned Midol works great as an aspirin substitute. I've lesnsed raisins are made from grapes and pickles from cucumbers. IVe learned how to com 7 extremes an unwanting world off to the abortion clinics. What rubbish. Nobody is forced to undergo an abor tion. Women get one because they think it's in their best interests. And who has the right to decide what an individual's best interests are? Let's suppose for a moment that state funds were cut off for abortions. This was on the ballot in a couple of states this year. It lost. Estimates are that abortions would cost as much as $4,000. So the rich would be able to afford it while, as always, the poor suffer. Abortion is a fact. It's not going to go away. As soon as people realize that and start dealing with it in that con text we'll all be better off. It baffles me how anyone could think that a woman could consent eagerly to an abortion. The women I know who have had one say they would never do it again. It's not an easy decision. It's not a decision a woman rushes into. Perhaps the most ridiculous part of the whole debate is that men essen tialy are making laws that have nothir g to do with them. This is a decision that, when push comes to shove, is a wom an's decision. It's her body and her life. Perhaps that's the most important thing to keep in mind. Goodwin is an undeclared graduate stu dent and Daily Nebraskan night news editor. parison grocery shop. Cindy has taught me how to take phone messages and how to freeze bread. And she taught me how to check the oil in my car. And I learned more traditionally masculine things from Luanne than I did from my big brother. I was kind of a pansy in high school. I had never rid den a motorcycle or seen a real gun until Luanne took us home with her once for a ride on her red Honda and a view of the prize goose she shot that fall. I even got to hold the gun. The accourtrements of female live ins also come in handy. Steve and I had to share a room at our Ninth and E address. One evening I was up typing late and Steve jumped up and yelled, asking if we had any cotton for his ears. I walked into the bathroom. I looked. No cotton. But I did find asubstitute. I whipped out two cf Lcaase's maxi pads, ripped the tiicchs strips from the backs and jaissed t&ea into Steve s ears. He slept sossdly, but Luanne reminded me the next morning just how expensive the suckers were. The coeducational situation also helps in the dating game. See HUDLER on 5