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August 29, 1989 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 89 No. 3
UNL insurance rates rise
Bruning wants increase
in minority appointments
By Jerry Guenther
Scnicr Reporter
A recent jump in health in
surance rates by the com
pany that provides cover
age for University of Nebraska
Lincoln students has upset some
students, even though health offi
cials say the increases arc part of a
national trend.
Kunlc Ojikutu, director of the
University Health Center, said
health insurance rates across the
country are rising at least 60 per
cent this year.
Ojikutu said health insurance
rates for students ordering insur
ance through UNL also have in
creased, but are still reasonable
when compared to other universi
ties. Midwest National Life out of
Irving, Texas, provides health in
surance coverage for UNL stu
dents.
This year’s annual premium for
a single student ordering health
insurance through UNL is $260, up
from $225 last year.
Patty Hclsing, business services
manager of the health center, said
the annual health insurance pre
mium for single students at Colo
rado is $546, while Kansas State
single students pay about $475 for
their annual health insurance pre
mium.
Hclsing said she didn’t have
figures from any other schools, but
said she thinks UNL’s rates would
be about average when compared
with most schools.
Annual health insurance rates
for spouses at UNL also have in
creased.
Ojikutu said that last year the
annual health insurance premium
for a UNL student’s spouse was
S559, while this year’s annual pre
mium for a student’s spouse is
S720.
The cost for a UNL student to
buy health insurance for his or her
children also has increased in some
eases.
Ojikutu said the cost for stu
dents to buy health insurance last
year for his or her children, how
ever many they have, was S599.
Students also could buy a health
insurance package for themselves,
their spouses and their children for
S928.
This year, students arc charged
S315 for each chile} for health in
surance, he said.
Don Goddard, a graduate stu
dent in the College of Engineering
and Technology, said he has
bought health insurance to cover
himself and his family through
UNL for the past three years.
Goddard said that last year he
paid S944 for health insurance to
cover his wife and four children.
This year, the same coverage
would cost S2,3(X).
Goddard said because of the
increase, he hasn’t decided yet if
he will renew his coverage with
UNL. •
“I’m scrambling all over look
ing to find some reasonable costs
for health insurance for my fam
ily,’’ Goddard said.
“The thing that is really upset
ting is that 1 was never notified of
See HEALTH on 6
By Jana Pedersen
Senior Reporter
Jon Bruning is hoping for
snow in October.
Bruning, a member of the
ASUN appointments committee, said
last spring’s appointments lacked one
important clement -- minorities.
“Once we get a few minorities
involved,” he said, “I hope it’s kind
of going to be like a snowball going
over a hill.”
To gel the snowball rolling, he
said, the appointments committee
must get more minorities to apply for
the several committee positions left
over from last spring.
All those positions should be filled
by October, he said.
Bruning said he plans to do all he
can to recruit minority applicants
before October.
Woods said Brunmg s attempts to
get minority .applicants last spring
were unsuccessful because there was
only about a week between the meet
ings he attended and the deadline for
applications.
“The time frame just wasn’t
enough,” she said. “If he would have
given us a month, we would have had
at least three more meetings to dis
tribute applications and answer ques
tions _Time is the key when you're
getting people here (for meetings)
only once a week.”
She said recruitment of minorities
must concentrate on in-depth, mass
communication over a long period of
time.
But that’s loo big a job for the
three-member appointments board,
she said.
“It actually should be every sena
tor’s job to be looking for someone to
gel involved who isn’t involved,”
Woods said.
UNL Health Insurance Rates increase in rates
. —"" | at UNL
ik.
Si
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C II 88/89 89/90
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1 ~ f ~r |3>559 I 1 I
Indent's l’89T90 ]$>20 ;
I spouse $200 jgoo $800 ^
He said the best way he can do that
is to attend minority student group
meetings and get them “fired up”
about available positions.
“There arc so many talented mi
nority students out there, but they
don’t want to be the only ones in
volved because that’s tough for any
body to do,” he said.
By talking to minority student
groups, Bruning said, he hopes he can
alleviate their concerns about partici
pating in the Association of Students
of the University of Nebraska.
Bruning said he attended some
minority student group meetings las
year, and some of those student:
applied for positions.
He said die number of applicants
wasn’t as great as he h§d hoped, “bul
the only loss was my time.”
By attending more meetings this
year, Bruning said, he hopes to in
crease the number of minority appli
cants.
But appointments board member
LaMondc Woods said it’s going to
take more than just motivational
speeches to get more minority stu
dents involved.
i-r
She said lhal in addition to minori
ties, another underrepresented group
is residence hall students.
According to AS UN records, 17 of
the 22 students who were appointed
as members or alternates of the
ASUN judicial board and judicial
appeals board were also members of
fraternities or sororities.
Bruning said lhal figure is disap
pointing but accurate.
Greeks receive more representa
tion in student government simply
because more fraternity and sorority
members apply for positions, he said.
Bruning said that last year, about
80 percent of committee applicants
were members of fraternities or so
rorities.
Many students who want to be
come involved in student govern
ment join fraternities or sororities
because they know lhal is the easiest
way to become involved, Bruning
said.
“Thai’s unfortunate,” he said.
“That’s not the way it should be, but
that’s the way it is.”
—---,
Former UNL student makes ‘mistakes
which result in changes and probation
By Pat Dinslage
Staff Reporter
Cformer University of Nc
braska-Lincoln student was
sentenced to one year proba
tion Monday at the Lancaster County
District Court in Lincoln.
John C. Mikkelscn pled guilty to
revised misdemeanor charges in con
nection with the robbery of a 31 -year
old California man in May.
Mikkelscn is one of six students
charged in connection with the rob
bery. Police said the man was at
tacked, and his ring, briefcase, watch
and $115 in cash were stolen from his
room at the Comhusker Hotel.
Mikkelsen told District Judge
William D. Blue that he realizes
going with his friends to the hotel that
night was‘‘a mistake.” But he didn’t
know anyone was going to be hurt or
anything taken, he said.
“I never touched the man or stole
anything,” he said.
7 never touched
the man or stole
anything’
-Mikkelsen
SRHNHMMHNNMNMmNNNNNMHr
In sentencing, Blue said this expe
rience should teach Mikkelsen to “do
your own thinking.”
Blue said he was familiar with the
details of the incident and believed
that “things just got out of hand.”
Mikkelscn probably got caught up in
“mob psychology,” he said.
Upon completion of the probation,
Mikkelscn can apply to have the sen
tence struck from his record, Blue
said. He cited Mikkelscn’s good rec
ord and strong family support as basis
for this consideration.
Mikkelscn said he was happy with
the sentence. He had “kind of ex
pected it” because his friend, David
Kuszaj, also had received probation,
he said.
Kuszaj was sentenced July 31 to
one year of probation and an $800
fine.
In addition to Mikkelscn and
Kuszaj, Ward Elliott, Lcodis Wiley,
Todd Zimmerman and Mitchell
Ho re charged.
is scheduled for sentencing
Sept. 1.
Key to study lies in dirty diapers
By Michelle Cheney
Staff Reporter _
Dirty diapers usually are imme
diately thrown away, but not
when a University of Nc
braska-Lincoln graduate student gets
her hands on them.
Carolynn Ukpaka, a graduate re
search assistant in the department of
human nutrition, is looking for min
erals in the urine of pregnant mothers
and the waste material of their babies
when they are bom.
Ukpaka said she hopes her study
will contribute to the bank of knowl
edge helping to guide pregnant
women toward more healthful eating.
Specifically, Ukpaka said, she has
a personal interest in studying diabe
tes.
Ukpaka compares potassium and
sodium measurements in the urine of
mothers with gestational diabetes to
those of mothers who do not have the
disease. She will study 20 women,
half of whom have gestational diabe
tes.
Gestational diabetes occurs in
about the seventh month of preg
nancy, usually as a result of stress,
Ukpaka said.
The disease normally disappears
72 hours after the baby is bom, she
said, because the baby no longer is
causing stress on the body.
Gestational diabetes affects 5 per
cent of pregnant women, according
to Diabetes Forecast, a diabetes
magazine.
The study will help Ukpaka earn a
doctorate in human nutrition. She is
studying under Constance Kies, pro
fessor of human nutrition and food
service management.
To gain knowledge and her doc
torate, Ukpaka takes urine samples
from the mothers in their 30th week
of pregnancy for five consecutive
days. She measures the amount of
potassium and sodium in the urine.
Two blood samples arc taken -
one during the 30th week of preg
nancy and one 72 hours after the baby
is bom. The University Health Center
screens the blood samples.
When the baby is born, Ukpaka
studies the baby’s diapers for 14
consecutive days. Once a day,
Ukpaka picks up dirty diapers, takes
them to her lab and preserves them by
freezing them.
She then takes off all the plastic
from the diaper and uses nitric acid to
dissolve the organic material before
she studies it.
Ukpaka said she has been working
on the project for the last two years,
and hopes to have all her data ana
lyzed by December.
She said she thinks she will study
2,000 diapers altogether, which are
given free to the mothers.