t ! Daily ^
Nebraskan
May 5,1989__ University of Nebraska-Lincoln
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Friday, partly sunny, windy and cooler with 30
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INDEX
News Digest.2
Editorial.4
Arts & Entertainment.6
Sports.9
Classifieds.10
Vol. 88 No. 153
Three more measles cases are diagnosed
By Lisa Donovan
Senior Reporter
hree more University of Ne
braska-Lincoln students were
diagnosed with rubeola
measles Thursday, a University
Health Center official said, bringing
the total number of cases to 10.
The latest victims, who live in
Agmen, Sigma Chi and Alpha Tau
Omega fraternities, could have con
tracted the measles in one of their
classes, said Dr. Ralph Ewert, health
center chief of staff.
Ewert said the health center has
sent letters to students in those frater
nities requesting that they receive
vaccinations, if they have not al
ready.
Besides the warning letters, Ewert
said, health center officials have
made arrangements with the director
of housing to reserve a portion of one
of the residence halls for measles
victims.
“They are preparing a place if we
get more (measles victims) than our
hospital can handle,” Ewert said.
It’s a matter of separating the vic
tims from people who may be suscep
tible, he said.
Victims who live near Lincoln arc
being sent home, Ewert said, because
they do not need medical attention
and can be isolated from the commu
nity at home.
Ewert said the new victims arc
thought to be second-generation
cases, meaning they may have caught
the disease from the original victim.
“I’d like to scold those who are
not immunized yet,” Ewert said.
“Where are they?”
According to health center rec
ords, 3,000 students are not known to
be immunized.
Although there is serious concern
that students will spread the disease
once they leave campus, health cen
ter officials have not made any addi
tional plans to remedy it.
“Ideally we should vaccinate
everybody before they leave,” Ewert
said.
At the close of the spring semester,
students hospitalized for measles will
be discharged once they feel well
enough to travel.
Officials from the Nebraska Stale
Health Department have made no
overt plans to prepare for a statewide
epidemic, but will take each ease
individually.
According to Grey Borden, health
department immunization program
coordinator, if a student has symp
toms of the measles once they get
See UPDATE on 3
UNL Health Center
has been distributing
morning-after pills
By David G. Young
Staff Reporter
Women at the University of Nebraska
Lincoln have been able to use “morn
ing-after pills” from the University
Health Center to induce abortions for more
than 10 years, said Dr. Ralph Ewert, chief of
staff at the health center.
The drug, known as Premarin, is prescribed
to women who fear impregnation from a recent
act of sexual intercourse. The health center
receives requests for the drug about once or
twice each week, Ewert said.
The $12 prescription consists of 20
hormone pills taken four limes a day for five
days, he said. It is the high conccnlratidn of fe
male hormones that causes the pregnancy to
terminate, he said.
“What you arc doing here is taking the
equivalent of four years of estrogen in five
days,” Ewert said. “Most people who have
studied (Premarin) think it prevents the im
plantation of the ovum in the uterus. If you look
at it that way, it’s actually an abortion-produc
ing agent. There arc doctors here who will not
prescribe it.”
Ewcrt said the drug is effective if taken
within 72 hours of intercourse. There has been
only one ease at the health center where a
woman has tested positive for pregnancy after
taking Premarin, he said.
The drug’s side effects, though rare, can
include nausea, abdominal cramps, breast
congestion and edema (swelling), Ewerl said.
While Premarin commonly is used to termi
nate pregnancy, it has not been approved by the
Food and Drug Administration for that pur
pose, said J. Chang, research associate for the
American Medical Association.
Dr. Winston Crabb, a private Lincoln gyne
cologist, said he usually prescribes Premarin
for its approved use as a hormone supplement
for post-menopausal women.
Though he said he is willing to give the drug
to women to stop a pregnancy, Crabb said he
would rather discourage that use. This is be
cause some women get sick from the high dose
of estrogen, he said.
Premarin is not approved as a pregnancy
terminating drug because drug companies fear
liability, Crabb said. This fear has been associ
ated with many pregnancy-related drugs for at
least 20 years, Crabb said.
See PILLS on 3
Student leader says
worldwide issues
should be dealt with
By Eve Nations
Staff Reporter
Dealing with worldwide issues and prob
lems now will help students develop
better leadership skills for the future,
said Barb Mcistcr, a senior political science
major at the University of Ncbraska-Lincoln.
Mcister, who participated in the 10-week
Leadership in America program last summer,
spoke to about 40 UNL students Thursday
about her experience in the program and what
she learned about the current leadership crisis.
“Students need to become more aware of
outside issues,” she said. “Worldwide issues
affect every one so we need to learn to deal with
them now.”
Many students arc concerned only with
career specialization, Meister said.
“Specialistsaregood, but if you want to see
the whole picture, you need to know more than
just specialized issues,” she said. “We need to
look beyond the four walls of our classrooms
and beyond the boundaries of the campus.”
Another problem future leaders have, Meis
tcr said, is learning how power works and
where the power relationships exist.
‘‘A lot of students don’t know how the
[lower works in the university system,” she
said. “In order to make any good changes, you
need to learn how to deal with the power
structure.”
Meister shared her experiences from the
leadership program. The program, which has
five different, stages in five different locations,
taught participants how to rely on their
strengths and weaknesses through various
experiences, she said.
She said the leadership program started at
the Center for Creative Leadership in Greens
boro, N.C., where students learned self assess
ment
The program then moved to the mountains
in Colorado and challenged the participants
physically. Mcister said it taught her to rely on
others as well as herself.
Then, after spending three weeks learning
to improve their leadership skills in business
and communication in Dallas, Mcister said, the
group of 50 students split up and went through
a four-week internship program. After the in
ternship program was over, all 50 people met
back in Washington, D.C., and discussed what
they had learned.
No ... Bud Light!
Phase II construction continues on the entrance to the newest recreation
center addition. See page 9 for story.
Humane Society criticizes rodeo practices
By Brandon Loomis
Senior Reporter
The Humane Society of the United
States hopes President George Bush’s
pledge for a kinder, gentler nation
also applies to cows.
Wendell Maddox, director of the
society’s Midwest regional office,
said about 12 percent of animals used
in steer-busting or roping competi
tions suffer visible physical injuries.
“Maybe the Bush administra
tion’s kinder, gentler nation means
we’ll have stricter regulations at ro
deos,” Maddox said.
The society is concerned about
such injuries as broken bones, broken
horns and bruising of the trachea and
larynx when calves arc roped and
flipped to the ground, he said.
Maddox said practices such as
using electric cattle prods on cows
and “bucking” or flank straps on
horses also are inhumane. A flank
strap is a bell cinched near the horse's
groin that makes the horse buck be
cause of pain, Maddox said.
George Pfeiffer, faculty adviser to
the University of Ncbraska-Lincoln
rodeo club, said cattle prods arc used
to move cattle into the chutes, not to
make them buck. He said the electric
shock stings but is much more hu
mane than beating the animals with a
stick.
“It’s generally accepted as the
most humane way to move live
stock,” he said.
Pfeiffer said flank straps arc pad
dcd with sheep skin, and cause no
pain to the animal.
Maddox said past attempts to
bring change from within the rodeo
industry have failed, as have attempts
at passing anti-rodeo legislation at
the state level. The only alternative
left, he said, is to lobby for regulation
from Washington.
Currently, Maddox said, the gov
ernment trusts rodeo associations to
monitor their own animals and ensure
that there is no cruelty.
“Rodeos are exempt from all anti
cruelty laws,” he said.
But if rodeos were to eliminate
cruelty from the sport, they would be
out of jobs and money, Maddox said.
“That’s what the industry is all
about, it’s just laden with cruelty
from top to bottom,” he said. “If you
could get them to clean up the prob
lems ... you’d be all but wiping out
rodeo.”
Maddox said the society puts little
pressure on the rodeo industry to
change, because the only real chance
for change is in the government.
“If we’re waiting for the rodeos to
change themselves, then we’re look
ing at a iong wait,” he said.
Robert Downey, executive direc
tor of the Capital Humane Society in
Lincoln, said it is not likely that ro
deos will ever be eliminated through
legislation or pressure.
“I doubt if you could get it done,”
he said. “If you could stop rodeo,
then certainly you could stop dog
races and horse races.”
Pfeiffer said there is no cruelty in
rodeo to be eliminated.
‘‘I think we lake pretty dam good
care of our animals,” Pfeiffer said.
“If we don’t, it’s money out of our
pockets.”
Rodeos buy their own livestock,
he said, and any injury that might .
occur in competitions costs the owner
for medical costs or new animals.
“If you don’t take care of your
livestock, they don’t perform,” he
said.
Pfeiffer said the 12 percent injury
figure Maddox quoted comes from an
event that most college rodeo compe
titions don’t include - single steer
roping. In that event, he said, com
See RODEO on 5
