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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 28, 1989)
unoH 1 I I V WEATHER: INDEX fak W w»m. .J3L.-BL w flfta Friday, variable doudiness, 40 peroent chance P& | fc H of rain, high 70-75, NW winds 15-25 mph | ^BHk ■ Wilf iM iKHIIH ^Ullfci H jp ..Mf iQlii Friday night, windy and cooler, 60 percent News Digest 2 E ^Bk I Jgf m y^^^lik .dir li w chance of rain, iows in mid 40s Saturday, rditonai 4 8 88- H Sf 1§E 8HT Wk| ” sat aE M Bm cooior, high mid 50s, 30 percent chance of Sports 5 gajfejl SR 88 9 MIBik KMBlL |H showers in morning. Extended forecast, cooler Arts & r ntertammont 8 9L B Jr H fir nl ■ B^Hk mST 83 B m temperatures with highs 50-60, chance of rain Classifieds 9 |||p6 9« Sunday, dry Monday and Tuesday. April 28,1989 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 88 No. 148 Employees of the state health department and UNL Health Center load measles vaccines into syringes. Officials maintain close watch By Larry Peirce Senior Reporter Mass measles imrntuiiza tioni for University of Nebraska-Lincoln stu dents ended Thursday, but health officials are keeping a close watch for further outbreaks of the dis ease. No new cases of rubeola measles have been diagnosed since Wednesday, said Dr. Gerald Fleischli, medical director of Uni versity Health Center. "I wouldn't be surprised if we got more, and I wouldn't be sur prised if we didn't," he said. On Wednesday 4,138 students came to the mass immunization sites for shots, and 2*441 had come by 3 p.m. Thursday. Health officials Friday will compare a list of people who are still not known to be adequately immunized with the names of people who are at risk of infection by Uie two students who represent the first and second generations of the Fleischli said letters were sent Thursday to about 100 students who are in the second victim's classes to tell them to come to the health center for immunization shots from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. today. § Students who were at risk of infection from the first case - such as some ROTC members and other _ classmates - and students who were prevented from coming to the mass immunizations also can come lo the health center Friday, he said. Fleischli said only one student who lives on the same floor as the two victims has not been immu nized. It will be one week before students will be out of risk from infection from the first generation of the disease, and two weeks be fore they will be out of risk from the second generation of the dis ease, he said. Each case brings two more weeks of potential outbreak, he said, but the mass immunizations lessened the risk. If more measles cases arc diag nosed, health officials will con tinue to notify any high risk groups in each case, such as those possibly exposed in classes and living units. Those people will be contacted by letter, he said. If two or three more cases show up by May 8, Fleischli said, an other meeting of health officials would be needed to form a secon dary plan. when all the numbers are added up from the mass minimizations, health officials will study them to get a close estimate of how many students remain who are not ade quately immunized. Fleischli said some of the stu dents who remain on the list are immune. “They just haven't come in,” he said. Fleischli said the mass immuni li,*T^lgueas^?ilS«rwe probably did as well as can be practically done,” he said. Students have cooperated with health officials’ efforts, Fleischli said, but some students suffer from a fear of receiving shots. “We try to handle them indi vidually,” he said. Fleischli said staff members notified him Wednesday that a student was feeling faint because he hated shots. Fleischli said the student was taken aside and reas sured that he would get the best care. “I told him we would get the besinurse on it,” he said. Fleischli said the staff of uni versity, city/county, and state employees and student volunteers who helped are exhausted after showing up Wednesday and Thursday at 5:30 a.m. and working four-hour shifts until 7:30 p.m. When they started the immuni zations Wednesday, he said, staff members were giving the shots standing up. By Thursday after noon they were tired, and giving the shots while sitting. The health center has focused only on more serious cases while staff members worked to defeat die measles, he said. Phi Mu to start over with 54 new members By Roger Price Staff Reporter FI ollowing a “tremendous rc ! sponsc” to open rush at the Phi Mu sorority, the Univer sity of Ncbraska-Lincoln chapter will have 54 new members next fall. Carmen Shively, a Phi Mu alum nus who is helping in the chapter’s reorganization, said the chapter had a list of more than 350 names from which to choose new members. The 350 women were students who went through rush last fall, women who responded on their own to the open rush and women who were recommended by other sorori ties, fraternities and new pledges. ‘ ‘The type of girl we were looking for was a type of motivated, leader ship-oriented person,’’ Shively said. “We found some very strong lead ers.’’ Shively said the new pledges al ready have had one meeting and will have another before school is out. She said the new pledges will be going through a very condensed pledge period and will be initiated over the summer - before fall rush begins Aug. 18. Not having gone through a formal rush will not be a disadvantage to the new members of Phi Mu, Shively said ‘ ‘The group is so excited now, and by August they should be really cx ■ cited - it can only be to our advan tage,” she said. Phi Mu will be able to add 40 girls during the fall rush, Shively said “If the girls arc there, and they arc quality girls, we’ll take up to our quota,” Shively said. Phi Mu is developing a social calendar for the reorganized chapter. Shively said the new members al ready have received calls from sev eral fraternities and sororities invit ing them to participate in their social events. , “We do appreciate all the help that everyone in the greek system has given us,” Shively said. Because new members are not familiar with each other’s abilities and talents, Shively said, the chapter will run on a committee basis until November when it will hold officer elections. The new members of Phi Mu also will receive help from their national headquarters and their alumnae. Shively said a chapter consultant from their headquarters will work with the new pledges until May 7, and several other national officials will visit throughout the next year. Shively said the new chapter won’t have to deal with debts in curred by the sorority before reor ganization. “Our pledges will not be penal ized for anything from the past,’ ’ she said. “That would not be fair to the new girls.” Shively said the former chapter’s debts would be paid by a major fund raiser organized by alumnae to he held this summer. Enforcing Pell Grant stipulation will rest on government s back By Shawn Schuldies Staff Reporter Officials at the Department of Education last week dis avowed announced plans to use investigators to enforce a law which states that Pell Grant recipients will lose their grant if they use illegal drugs. According to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Department of Higher Education announced earlier this month that it was going to send investigators to campuses to make sure students are drug free and schools are complying with the new law. A law passed by Congress requires Pell Grant recipients to sign a state ment saying they will not * ‘engage in the unlawful manufacture, distribu tion, dispensation, possession or use of a controlled substance during the period covered” by their grants. The plan to use investigators to enforce the policy was issued in a press release based on a speech by Education Secretary Lauro Cavazos. However, Cavazos said, he had not approved the plan or its inclusion in his speech, the article stated. Al though Cavazos removed the plan from his address, the press release was sent out unchanged, Cavazos said. John Beacon, director of the Of fice of Scholarships and Financial Aid, said the confusion in the Depart ment of Education has him wonder ing how Cavazos will plan to enforce the policy. “We loo are wailing," he said. The people who should be making the policy aren’t, Beacon said. Beacon said that right now, the law is not enforced. He said the law achieves nothing unless the student refuses to sign an agreement not to use drugs. If the department does decide to send investigators to campuses, like stated in the original plan, and take tips from the public, the department will be doing all the work, he said, and his office won’t be involved. All his office does is compile in formation from the Pell Grant forms, he said. Bill requiring minors to tell parents of abortion debated By Jana Pedersen Suff Reporter While the U.S. Supreme Court consid ered testimony that could overturn the landmark Roe vs. Wade case legaliz ing abortion, lawmakers debated a separate abortion issue Thursday on the floor of the Nebraska Legislature. Continuing debate that began Tuesday af ternoon, the Legislature considered first-round approvai of LB769, based on similar legisla tion in Minnesota, that would require any woman under the age of 19 to inform her parents before having an abortion. Ensuring that LB769 would be constitu tional if passed was the focus of Thursday’s debate. Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha moved to reconsider an amendment that had been voted down during Tuesday’s session. The amendment, sponsored by Sen. Daniel Lynch of Omaha, would require that informa tion be provided to the underage woman about a judicial bypass to the parental information requirement without her having to ask for it. Chambers said the amendment would be a necessary addition to the bill to protect the rights of the underage woman. The judicial bypass provided under the bill should be called a "heart bypass," Chambers said, because the bill has ,Jno heart at all’’ where underage women are concerned. It is unfair for sponsors of the bill to talk about protecting the rights of the unborn child when they fail to inform the underage woman of her own rights, he said. "A right which is denied a person who is to benefit from it is not really a right but... a mockery of it," Chambers said. Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha said he thought LB769 would not be constitutional without the addition of Lynch’s amendment and other changes. The judicial bypass was added to LB769 to ensure its constitutionality, Ashford said, but the bill also must guarantee the underage woman’s right to know about the bypass. The requirement that both parents must be informed also is unconstitutional, he said, because both parents may not be her guardians. Ashford said the concept behind the bill isn’t bad but it needs to be accomplished in a more "reasonable" manner. Sen. Bernice Labedz of Omaha, co-sponsor of LB769, said underage women could be informed of their rights under the bill. Because the physician who is to perform the abortion is the one responsible for informing the underage woman’s parents, Labedz said, the physician will know the proper judicial procedures and be able to inform the underage woman about them. But Sen. Dave Landis of Lincoln said he didn’t think the bill had anything to do with women knowing what their rights are. “This is not a bill of the right to know. It’s an attempt to take away the constitutional rights of women,’’ he said. See ABORTION on 3