WEATHER: INDEX
Tuesday, sunny, blowing and drifting snow
with NE winds 10-15 mph., high of 30 Tues
day night, dear and cold with slowly diminish- Dl9est.2
ing winds Wednesday, high of 20, dear and ArtiFn^rimani t
cold Thursday through Saturday, high of 30 Sports 9
on Thursday, upper 40s Friday and down to Classifieds 10
30 again on Saturday No precipitation ex
pected.
February 21,1989 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 88 No. 105
uonme sneenan/uany Neoraskan uonme ;>neenan/ uany Neoraskan
Trash bags filled with blood donor and saline solution containers rest in the found near several dumpsters and in the alley. The name of the donor on the
alley behind the Lincoln Plasma Corp. Sunday. The blood containers were bag has been blacked out.
Disposal of bloodied waste investigated
By Jerry Guenther
Staff Reporter
and Curt Wagner
Editor
Ajamtorial service’s disposal
of bloodied waste products
from a local plasma center
may have violated health guidelines,
a health official said Monday.
Jane Ford, director of the Lincoln/
Lancaster County Health Depart
ment, said the department is investi
gating Lincoln Janitorial Service
Inc.’s possible mishandling of used
blood donor bags and other waste
materials from the Lincoln Plasma
Corp, 126 N. 14th SL
At least seven emptied blood bags,
intravenous tubes and bloodied gar
bage bags were found in the alley
between O and P streets and 14th and
15lh streets Sunday afternoon.
Ford said she received a complaint
about blood products lying in the al
ley early Sunday afternoon. She said
this was the first time that she had
ever heard any complaints about the
plasma center’s handling of their
waste disposal.
“We’ll lake whatever action is
necessary to ensure that it doesn’t
happen again,” Ford said.
Scott Stanard, regional manager
of the business which owns and oper
ates Lincoln Plasma Corp., North
American Biological Inc., said the
improper disposal of waste products
was not the fault of any of the center’s
employees.
Stanard said the trash was improp
erly disposed of by the janitorial serv
ice which is contracted to clean the
plasma center.
Lincoln Janitorial Service Inc.,
1201 O St., cleans the labs for the
Lincoln Plasma Corp.
An official from Lincoln Janitor
ial Service Inc. would not comment
on the matter Monday.
One of the dumpsters in the alley
had a tan plastic dash bag on top of it
which was opened, exposing blood
ied paper towels.
Blood bags and lubes were scat
tered on the ground further down the
alley.
Seven garbage bags, some open,
were found between the buildings
housing Lincoln Plasma Corp. and
the State Historical Museum. Used
Fenway Blood-Pack Units, full and
partially full 0.9 percent Sodium
Chloride bags, tubes and Cliniswab
Idophor-pvp scrub saturated swab
sticks hung out of the trash bags and
were on the ground near the bags.
The names of donors could be seen
on some of the bloodied donor bags.
Stanard said he plans to contract
another janitorial service to clean the
plasma center in the future, and
called the incident “unacceptable.”
“We’ve never had a problem with
trash disposal in the Lincoln area
before,” Stanardsaid. “We’re just as
upset as anybody else.”
If another janitorial service is not
found immediately, Stanard said,
Lincoln Plasma Corp. will take re
sponsibility to ensure that ail the
waste materials are properly placed
in a locked dumpster.
He said the plasma center plans to
cooperate with the Lincoln/Lancas
ter County Health Department “to
make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Ford said Monday that it appeared
the center had violated some regula
tions. But she said she isn’t sure what
type of charges may be filed or if any
fines will be issued.
An official from the health depart
ment cleaned up the debris Sunday,
Ford said.
Gregg Wright, director of the
Slate Health Department, would not
speculate whether the plasma center
had broken any guidelines because
the plasma center is licensed by the
Food and Drug Administration, not
the State Health Department.
No FDA officials could be
reached for comment Monday.
Ford said the debris will be exam
ined to determine if they came from
the Lincoln Plasma Corp. and if they
were properly disinfected before
bagged as trash. The debris will then
be incinerated, she said.
Blood products are disinfected by
a process called autoclaving. Auto
claving combines extreme heat and
See BLOOD on 3
Decision may mean bigger hike
By Eric Pfanner
and Jerry Guenther
Staff Reporters
Cniversity of Ncbraska-Lin
coln faculty salaries may be
raised because of a labor arbi
trator's decision at the University ol
Nebraska at Omaha, members of the
UNL Faculty Senate said Monday.
Richard Vocltz, associate profes
sor in the UNL libraries, said he
thinks the decision by arbitrator
James McClimon will mean raises
larger than what Gov. Kay Onr has
proposed for UNL faculty.
McClimon decided last week in
favor of giving UNO faculty mem
bers two annual pay raises of 9 per
cent.
The NU Board of Regents asked
for a 9 percent raise at UNO and a
12.5 percent raise at UNL in its 1989
91 budget request.
But Orr proposed a 7.5 percent
increase in salaries at both UNL. and
UNO for the 89-91 bicnnieum.
Since McClimon has backed the
regents' UNO revest of 9 percent,
Voclu said he thinks the Nebraska
Legislature will raise UNL’s in pro
portion. This could put the UNL sal
ary raise at the regents’ request of
12.5 percent.
John Russell, assistant vice presi
dent and director of personnel for
NU, said the regents can appeal the
arbitrator’s decision to the Commis
sion of Industrial Relations, a group
established by state statutes to re
solve labor disputes involving public
employees. The regents have until
March 15 to appeal the decision, he
said.
The board may want to appeal, he
said, because it does not have a guar
antec that the Legislature will honor
McClimon’s decision.
If the Legislature does not give a 9
percent increase and the board has
not appealed the arbitrator’s deci
sion, the board will have to finance
the 9 percent increase for UNO sala
ries, Russell said.
Nancy Hoch, chairman of the NU
Board of Regents, said the board has
not considered the arbitrator’s deci
sion.
‘‘1 don’t have enough information
on it to make a comment,” Hoch
said.
The regents have not set a date to
discuss the arbitrator’s decision, she
said.
Hoch said the regents will con
tinue their commitment to bringing
the faculty and staff salaries at all
See FACULTY on 3
Letters sent to UNL faculty
tout full-time lobbyist position
By •tarr? Guenther
■staff Rcponei _
Mpt he president of the Univer
I sity Association for Ad
Jk mimstrative Development
said he has sent a letter to faculty
and staff members at the Univer
sity of Nebraska-Lincofci asking
for donations to get a full-time
lobbyist at the Nebraska Legisla
ture.
Glen Schumann, the associa
tion’s president, said the money
that is collected will be used to
make the faculty senate's lobbyist
a full-time position.
Schumann said the faculty sea
ate already has a lobby ist, but he is
not full time and works for the total
salary request in the university’s
budget, not just faculty salaries.
The additional hours of the fac
ulty senate’s lobbyist will be used
with the intention of trying to get
the Legislature to approve the
12.5-percent salary increase that
the NV Board of Regents has re
quested for UNL faculty and staff.
Although Schumann said UNL
faculty members can phone and
w rite letters to state legislators, a
lobbyist will provide "something
a little more aired."
"Anymore, lobbying seems to
be the way to get things done in titis
country, Schumann said.
Petersen signs Fund A tee allocations tor next year
By David G. Young
Stiff Reporter
Fund A student fee allocations for 1989
90 were signed Monday by Jeff Pe
tersen, ASUN president.
Student fees for Fund A, which arc rctund
able on request, include allocations for the
Association of Students of the University of
Nebraska, the Daily Nebraskan and the Uni
versity Program Council. Fund A fees lor next
year now amount to $337,663, or $8.11 per
student per semester. The overall increase is
3.81 percent from this year.
“I don’t like to see student fees go up,”
Petersen said. “Quite frankly, I wish student
fee users, specifically UPC, would submit
smaller budgets.”
The overall increase in student fees is the
result of an additional $22,464 allocated to
UPC. A substantial part of this increase will
offset new expenses of the Kimball Lied Pre
forming Arts Committee. These expenses are
connected with the opening of the Lied Center
for the Performing Arts.
Petersen said he would have liked to see
more discussion of KLPAC’s budget at last
week’s ASUN meeting. This discussion was
limited by lengthy debate over funding for the
Committee Offering Lesbian And Gay Events,
he said.
Despite this increases, UPC managed to
submit a sound budget, Peterson said.
‘T think Dave Madigan (UPC-Cily presi
dent) did an excellent job on the UPC budget,”
he said. “The point isn’t that you should cut for
the sake of cuuing - it’s everyone’s duly to
ensure that they are being enhanced in the most
critical way possible.”
“I’m damn glad to see ASUN cut,” Pe
lersen said. ” It’s a lough thing to do and that’s *
why I’m so glad I did it. The best way lo serve
students is to be highly critical of yourself.”
Petersen reduced ASUN’s budget by
$10,000 from 1988-89. ASUN’s budget for
next year amounts to $121,102, or $2.91 per
student per semester in student fees.
The Daily Nebraskan’s $39,193 fee alloca
tion is will not change.
ASUN’s recommended budgets must now
be approv«4f|*jMM€>ficscn, vice chancellor
for snnk'nka/r&irv
"I’ll glad it‘s ovar/’ Petersen said.