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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 27, 1991)
Opinion Jana Pedersen, Editor, 472-1766 Eric Pfanner, Editorial Page Editor Diane Braylon, Managing Editor Waller Gholson, Columnist Paul Domeier, Copy Desk Chief Brian Shcllilo, Cartoonist Michael Slock, Columnist Dash controversy UNO's priority grammar, not education University of Nebraska at Omaha student leaders are tired of Lincoln-centric thinking. They are fighting back against years of oppression. Last week, the UNO student senate passed a resolution urging that the University of Nebraska change the way it refers to the Lincoln campus. Senators were offended by the fact that UNL is called the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, while UNO and UNK are called the University of Nebraska at Omaha and at Kearney. Last we checked, those campuses actually were “at” Omaha and “at” Kearney. Of course, UNL is “at” Lincoln. But the UNO student leaders’ arguments for calling UNL the Univer sity of Nebraska at Lincoln apparently weren’t based on geography. The resolution says the dash, instead of the “at,” in reference to UNL “fosters the opinion that good education is only to be had in Lincoln.... This is certainly not the case.” The education that students receive at UNO can’t be too bad. Apparently they have learried the secret of UNL’s vaunted aca demic opportunities — the dash. Marx v anevennoven, a junior poiiucai science major anu a member of the UNO student government, introduced the reso lution. “The professors here aren’t professors who couldn’t make it in Lincoln,” he said. That’s “at” Lincoln, Mark, not “in.” Vanevcnhoven also said UNO students arc tired of being treated as if they are attending “a two-year commuter college.” In doing so, he uses the same educational snobbism that he accuses UNL of. Just think about all those poor commuter students who go to two-year colleges with neither dashes nor “ats" in their names. Vanevcnhoven thinks he knows why UNL gets the preferen tial treatment of a dash. It bribes members of the NU Board of Regents. “The regents run on the basis that UNL gives them free football tickets rather than on the basis that they can make the \ University of Nebraska system run as well as it can,” he said. Can you blame them? Would you want to watch a game played by people called “Mavs”? We urge the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska — student government, at Lincoln — to pass a counter-resolution. It could be stated as follows: “Calling the University of Ncbraska-Lincoln the University of Nebraska at Lincoln fosters the opinion that UNL wants to stoop to UNO’s level. In our ongoing quest for educational excellence, we instead urge UNO to strive to reach that same level. Then, someday, it can call itself the University of Ncbraska-Omaha.” —E.F.P. What others think Store-bought notes do not cut it alone Jon’s Notes, located in the Jay hawk Bookstore, has obtained fac ulty permission to print and sell notes from six different classes. Teaching assistants, graduate students and those who have shown proficiency in a given field have been hired as note-takers. Although we are skeptical be cause we see the possibility of abuse, we certainly are not opposed to the concept. The instructor has given permission, and the instructor — just like mother — knows best. Every two weeks the notes are given to the instructor as a check against errors. Most of the courses that Jon’s now services are freshman and sophomore level, such as Sociology 1CW. Yes, younger students will benefit from seeing how notes are taken by the more experienced and be able to assimilate the material belter. But are they gaining or losing experience in note-taking by buying better ones? Buy them, but take your own as well. — ihe University Daily Kansan University of Kansas Education needs new national emphasis On the heels of a series of cutbacks in services and academic departments, University of Iowa students learned this weekend that the Board of Regents may raise their tuition by 9.4 percent next year in addition to a proposed 33 percent increase in the mandatory health fee. It is instructive to note where the bulk of the bell-tightening is being done. The UI Strategic Planning Steering Group proposes that the undergraduate degree program in social work be phased out as well as the entire School of Library and In formation Sciences. Departments in the College of Liberal Arts are losing staff and faculty positions. University maintenance employees are being laid off. Students who can barely afford the present cost of tuition are being asked to pay even more. What is needed is not only action on a stale level, but a reorganization of national priorities to shift more resources to education and human services and away from military spending. — The Daily Iowan University of Iowa weu,t>o MW of ^oi) FACUUT^ MEMBERS KWE p A*W \MFV)T OK TV€ "B0C>GvET p ans? speak how or ^ FOREVER REWNQOtSA 7 ^OUR SK^. CX DAVID REITER AIDS demands respect, care A surgical technician filed a law suit in a Los Angeles Superior Court earlier this week against a former patient who concealed the fact that she was HIV-positive. The technician was exposed to the HIV infected blood when she nicked her finger on a scalpel during Jan Lus tig’s cosmetic surgery. Although the lawsuit alleges in tent to inflict emotional distress and fraud, there is no evidence that Lustig intended to expose anyone to her blood. Nevertheless, she concealed her con dition by signing papers which stated that she had no medical problems. In other words, she lied. Regardless of whether it is suc cessful, this lawsuit highlights a ne glected side of the AIDS health care controversy. Considerable attention has been focused on the protection of patients, but little has been directed to the protection of health care workers. On Thursday, Kimberly Bergalis, one of five patients infected with AIDS by a Florida dentist, urged a House r subcommittee to enact legislation requiring mandatory AIDS testing of health care workers. _ ■ • dncauy nas taken some steps in this general direction. This summer, the Senate passed a measure imposing a prison sentence on health professionals who know they have AIDS but continue to practice with out informing their patients. A more moderate proposal also passed by the Senate would require health care workers who perform “exposure-prone” procedures to be tested for HIV-slaius. If they tested positive, they would have to refrain from performing the specified proce dures unless they received permis sion from patients and professional review panels. Critics of these measures claim they are emotional responses, because the risk of getting AIDS through medical treatment is small. Accord ing to Newsweek, scientists at the Centers for Disease Control estimate the chances of getting AIDS from an infcclcd surgeon at between 1 in 42,000 and 1 in 417,000. Critics also point out the impor tance of proper medical procedures The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor from all readers and interested others. Letters will be selected for publi cation on the basis of clarity, origi nality, timeliness and space avail for the protection of patients. They claim that if proper procedures — such as adequate sterilization of equip ment — arc followed, it is irrelevant whether a health care worker has AIDS. The critics are right to stress the importance of proper medical proce dures. The problem is that even if they arc followed carefully, they are not fail-safe. Therefore, the fact that a health care worker has AIDS is going to present an additional — even if slight —- risk to the patient. And even if it is slight, it seems reasonable that the patient should have informed consent as to whether to take on that addi tional risk. The concern for protecting patients is legitimate, but no more so than the concern for protecting health care workers. In fact, the AIDS virus pres ents a greater threat to health care workers than to patients. Medical procedures generally require cutting into the patient’s body, making it possible for the patient s blood to escape. In contrast, the phy sician’s blood escapes only if he or she is somehow injured during medi cal procedures. . While there are five known pa tients who received AIDS from health LETTER POLICY able. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit all material submit ted. Anonymous submissions will not be considered for publication. Let ters should include the author’s professionals, all stemming from Florida dentist David Acer, there are 40 known cases in which health pro fessionals have received AIDS from patients. Thoughtful legislation should not l be focused arbitrarily on the protec tion of patients and must address two problems. The first problem is a lack of re spect. This is exhibited by infected health care workers who continue to perform invasive procedures without informing patients of their condition. This summer reports surfaced of a New York doctor who continued his practice while concealing the fact that he had tested HIV-positive two years earlier. Patients also have shown a lack of respect for health care providers by not being forthright about their con ditions. Lustig showed a lack of re spect for health care workers by lying about her medical condition prior to her surgery. The second problem is lack of care. Newsweek cited a University of California at San Francisco study, which revealed that 74 percent of medical residents surveyed indicated that they would not administer life saving treatment to HIV-positive patients u doing so involved ai^ cent chance of gelling infected. On the olhcr hand, we have the case of Barbara Webb, a 65-ycar-old teacher who was infected with AIDS by Acer. When Webb needed eye surgery earlier this year, she told her doctor that she was HIV-positive and ex plained that she would not be insulted if he refused to treat her. On the olhcr side, her doctor agreed to do the operation anyway. Webb was quoted in Newsweek as saying: “I would have understood totally and gone down to the AIDS clinic. And it wouldn’t have bothered me at all to go down. I just gave him the option. Nobody gave me the op tion.*' The Webb case illustrates the ulti mate solution: care and respect. Reiter is a graduate student in philosophy and a Dally Nebraskan columnist. name, year in school, major and group affiliation, if any. Requests to withhold names will not be granted. Submit material to the Daily Ne braskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 14(H) K