Program aids rape victims
Health center
pays for tests
By Jennifer McClure
Staff Reporter
To provide better emotional sup
port for rape victims, the Univer
sity Health Center has begun a
program to pay for their tests, a
health center official said.
Dr. Kunle Ojikutu, director of
the health center at the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln, said the pol
icy went into effect this semester.
The average cost for the tests is
more than $200, Ojikutu said.
The health center is not equipped
to administer tests needed to prove
a student was raped, he said. In
stead, students are directed to a
local hospital for the tests.
With the new program, the health
center will pay for tesfs admini
stered at local hospitals, he said.
Linda Rizijs, director of nurs
ing at the health center, said center
officials weren’t comfortable
administering the tests.
“We are not equipped to do a
thorough job, and we don’t have
enough (victims) per year to re
member the procedure,” Rizijs said.
Administering tests for sexual
assault also creates staffing prob
lems because a doctor and a nurse
are needed for the procedure, she
said.
The Association of Students at
the University of Nebraska Human
Rights Committee suggested at the
beginning of the year that the health
center pay for the tests, Ojikutu
said.
“The issue came about with us
not doing the test and (it) costing
the student more money when they
went somewhere else to get it done,”
he said.
Ojikutu met with UNL’s stu
dent health insurance company ear
lier this year, he said, and the
company said it would forgo the
deductibles in cases of sexual as
sault.
“Then we ran into the problem
that not everyone had student health
insurance,” he said. “I had a meet
ing with Vice Chancellor (James)
Griesen and key personnel within
the health center. We decided to do
it.”
The health center now pays for
the tests whether
students carry student health insur
ance or not, Ojikutu said. The health
center also pays for the tests re
gardless of where the rape occurred,
he said.
Rizijs said she recommended
that rape victims be tested at Lin
coln General Hospital because of
its closer location, experience with
rape cases and on-duty policeman.
Ojikutu said the health center
preferred that students called the
center to inform them of the assault
before going to another hospital
for treatment, but the cost still would
be covered if they did not call.
Additional tests also would be
covered if the student came to the
health center a week later, he said.
If counseling was needed,
Ojikutu said, the first three ses
sions would be free. The rest would
be determined on a casc-by-case
basis.
“It covers everything,” he said.
“We want to be very liberal.”
Although the health center al
ready pays for the tests, Ojikutu
said, officials still must put every
thing in writing.
“We will try to put it into the
semester bulletin,” he said. “We
need to get things into motion.”
Ojikutu said Ik also would study
the impact of the cost on the health
center’s budget.
“I will not allow it to be affected
by budget cuts,” he said. “If we
have to cut other things, we’ll do it,
but not this one.”
New bill may define,
outlaw act of stalking
By Sean Green
Senior Reporter
The Nebraska Legislature brought
the state one step closer Tuesday to
being one of only three states with
laws defining and providing penalties
for stalking.
In a 32-0 vote, state senators ad
vanced to select
file LB1098,
which would
make the act of
stalking a crimi
nal offense.
Sen. Jennie
Robak of Colum
bus, one of the bill’s co-sponsors,
said victims of stalkers now had no
recourse because no laws existed
against the act.
Stalkers are defined in the bill as
those who “harass or willfully, mali
ciously and repeatedly follow another
person or make a credible threat against
that person.”
Robak said the bill, if made law,
would be an answer to the prayers of
victims and law enforcement officers
who had no legal recourse against
stalkers.
“This bill is not only needed for
the protection of victims, it is an
answer for the prayers of policemen
who have been unable to help their
victims,” she said.
California and Virginia are the only
states that have laws against stalking,
but Robak said members of the Colo
rado Legislature had requested a copy
of LB 1098 and were considering a
similar law.
LB 1098 would make stalking a
Class I misdemeanor for the first of
fense and a Class IV felony for the
second offense, including a penalty
of up to five years in jail and a $10,000
fine.
The only recourse victims of stalk
ers now have is to get a restraining
order on the stalker, Robak said. But
because stalking is not illegal, she
said, law enforcement officials have
their hands tied and can do little to
stop the stalker.
Robak also said it was important
not to assume that all stalkers were
men.
While complaints about stalkers
seem to come from women more of
ten than men, she said, some women
follow, harass and threaten men.
Robak said that sometimes people
were unconcerned about the crime of
stalking because it did not always
involve a physical attack.
ASUN plans to vote
on parking fee, taxes
By Kara Morrison
Staff Reporter
ASUN will vote tonight on an
ASUN/Academic Senate parking
safety proposal and a government bill
opposing a proposed state cigarette
tax increase.
The Association of Students of the
University of
Nebraska and the
Academic Senate
on Tuesday out
lined an alterna
tive to the Park
ing Advisory
Board’s proposed
parking-permit fee increase.
According to the proposal, the
university would pay for parking-safety
improvements by increasing parking
permit prices $2 to S5 for the next
four years. Those who buy more
expensive permits would pay the larg
est increase.
The other government bill to be
voted on by the senate opposes a
Nebraska environmental-protection
group’s proposal to add a 25-cent tax
to cigarette purchases.
ASUN President Andrew Siger
son said that, according to the Clean
Environment Committee, $33 mil
lion in revenue would be raised from
the proposed cigarette tax, most of
which would go toward environmental
projects such as tree-planting and
recycling.
About $6 million of the revenue
also would go toward cancer research
and educational programs to discour
age smoking, Sigerson said.
UNL officials said Monday they
were concerned that the additional
tax would jeopardize cigarette-tax
funding used by the university for
capital construction.
Sigerson said he agreed that the
Legislature would be hesitant to fur
ther increase the cigarette tax for fu
ture university projects if the 25-cent
tax was voted in.
University projects such as the Bob
Devaney Sports Center and the new
George W. Beadle Center were paid
for with cigarette-tax revenue, he said.
Also, Sigerson said the proposed
tax increase was significant enough
that it could erode the cigarette-tax
base because “people could poten
tially stop buying the product rather
than paying the tax.”
Although the university could
receive funding for research from the
proposed lax increase, Sigerson said
it was more likely that most of the
funding would be used to discourage
people from starting to smoke.
The ASUN bill also asks the NU
Board of Regents to reject the ciga
rette-tax proposal.
Multicultural
Continued from Page 1
The legislators unanimously ap
proved the bill's reconsideration, and
later passed LB922 and an additional
appropriations bill, which would supply
more than $80,000 for the next school
year to implement LB922, and more
than $70,000 for the following two
years.
Chambers said he was glad the bill
had passed through the Legislature.
“We represent the public, and it
shows by recognizing the need of
schools to teach about all the groups
within the state, that we want to eradi
cate racism, bigotry ... and all the
things that build up the walls between
us,” he said.
LB922 and LB922A will be given
to the governor to sign within the next
five days.
If the governor signs the bills or
takes no action, they will become
law.
If vetoed, the bills would be re
turned to the Legislature, which could
override the veto. An override would
require 30 votes, or three-fifths of the
full Legislature.
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