Police say campus can be safer
By Jan Calinger
Staff Reporter
_
One year after the disappearance
of UNL student Candice Harms, stu
dents are relatively safe, but they can
be safer, UNL police said.
Cpl. Larry
Kalkowski, head
of UNL Police
Crime Preven
tion, said what he
saw indicated that
the University of
Nebraska-Lin
coln is a safe place
to be, although
more needs to be
done to ensure student safety.
Judith Kriss, director of the Wom
en’s Resource Center, said women
are safer in some ways because of
1 ighting, campus pol ice and other fac
tors, but the sense of urgency is not as
high now as it was a year ago.
“There was a sense of heightened
awareness,” she said. “I think we’ve
lost that. I think personal safety is
Health
Continued from Page 1
case of students, Mueller said, that
would not necessarily be the Univer
sity Health Center.
“The whole playing field would
change,” he said. “Theoretically, this
does away with student health plans.”
- Mueller said if Cl inton’s plan went
into effect, the heal th center might not
even receive student fees, but would
try to survive in the competitive envi
ronment as other outpatient clinics.
Today, students pay about $75 a
semester in student fees to be able to
see health center doctors. Those types
of visits would also be included in
Clinton’s plan.
-M
We don't know what
the shakedown's
going to be,"he said.
“The Clinton health
plan Is going to take
a long time before It's
ever enacted.
—Russell LaBeau
medical director
University Health Center
-ff “
Such issues haven’t yet been dis
cussed in detail, Mueller said. Even if
the plan was passed tomorrow, it would
be three years before implementa
tion, he said.
Russell LaBeau, medical director
of the University Health Center, also
said it was difficult to foresee how the
plan might affect the health center.
“We don’t know what the shake
down’s going to be,” he said. ‘The
Clinton health plan is going to take a
long time before it’s ever enacted.”
Mueller said there was a good
chance Congress won’t go for
Clinton’s plan at all. He said some
reform probab!y would be approved
by the end of 1994, but he wasn’t sure
how extensive it would be.
“I’m waffling,” he said. “It might
be a small step, it might be a more
sweeping change.”
Mueller said very few people in the
health care profession were complete
ly against Clinton’s plan, but he said
there was a lot of disagreement over
specifics.
“The insurance industry, by and
large, likes it, except for capping pre
mium costs. The Republicans don’t
like mandates on employers and phy
sicians don’t like mandates on cost,”
he said. “But no one says we shouldn’t
change at all.”
However, Mueller said knowing
whether this particular plan would
work as well as the Clinton Adminis
tration hopes is like looking into a
crystal ball.
“It has the potential to control
costs,” he said. “No system in the
world has been able to do that as
effectively as they would like.
“But the worst thing we can do is
nothin*.”
removed because we’re removed from
the need.
“I’m not sure that women are now
concerned more that they were before
the (Harms) incident.”
Peg Miller, Women’s Center coor
dinator of counseling, said she agreed.
“I think what happened is that it
waseasy tosay, ‘This won’t happen to
me,”’ she said. “After Harms, there
was panic because no one knew who
the assailants were.”
When arrests were made in the
case, “everyone breathed a sigh of
relief and said, ‘We’re safe.’ But the
danger is sometimes from people you
know,” Miller said.
Kathy Mullen, customer service
manager of the Nebraska Bookstore,
said that in the months after Harms’
disappearance, sales of defense prod
ucts such as mace and tear gas rose.
Mullen said that since last year, the
bookstore had doubled the variety of
roducts it offered,
defense products, ranging in
price from $10-25, are still in de
mand, she said.
But Kalkowski said mace wasn’t
always a good defense.
“I don’t like the false sense of
confidence it gives some people,” he
said.
“(Mace) doesn’t always work on
mental patients, on drunks,” he said.
“It doesn’t always work immediately
and it certainly doesn’t work if it’s in
your backpack,” he said.
Kalkowski said students could
improve their personal safety by us
ing good judgment.
“Common sense and your head are
the best weapons you can use,” he
said.
Kriss said a sense of awareness
was the best protection for women.
“This is a safe environment,” she
said. “We’re very fortunate that UNL
and Lincoln are safe. But no place is
totally safe.”
Kalkowski said he would like to
see more safety awareness on the part
of UNL students in the future.
“I’d like to see people take more of
an interest in taking care of them
selves and others,” he said.
Tuition, degree applications due shortly
From Staff Roports
This week contains two impor
tant deadlines for students to re
member — tuition payments and
degree applications.
Today is the last day to pay
tuition fees. Payments must be into
the Bursar’s office by 4 p.m. to
Harms
Continued from Page 1
cautious,” she said. “You certainly
don’t want people to be panic-strick
en.
“If it causes them to at least rethink
what they do in terms of their own
safety, I think it’s a benefit.”
Officers said Lincoln police and
campus police fielded a flood of calls
following the incident. Callers asked
for information about safety tips and
self-defense classes.
UNL Police Sgt. Mylo Bushing
said police provided literature about
campus safety as part of their crime
prevention program.
Students, he said, should always
avoid a $25 late payment fee.
Students must also pay a $25 fee
to apply for a degree this year.
Friday is the last day to apply for
students who plan to graduate in
December. Degree applications and
payments must be in 107 Adminis
tration Building by 5 p.m.
be mindful of their own safety. When
a out, Bushing said, students
i tell friends where they are
going and when they’ll return.
In the case of Candice Harms, those
precautions would have been moot.
She was abducted in her own drive
way after leaving her boyfriend’s
house.
Harms said he was disheartened
society had declined to a point where
students had to worry about their safe
ty every day.
“This is the best time to be a kid in
life. You’re going to school, enjoying
your freedoms. You shouldn’t have to
worry about being abducted or sexu
ally assaulted,” Harms said. “It’s just
not fair to you kids.” _
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