Official says Nebraska
will monitor health plan
By Steve Smith
Senior Reporter
Nebraskans’ voices need to be
heard in Washington as the United
States moves toward universal health
care, Lt. Gov. Kim Robak said Tues
day.
So far, state officials arc keeping
active in the health care reform pro
cess, she said.
“We’re reading and monitoring the
plan to see that our state is not dis
proportionately hurt by (a potential
health care) plan,” Robak said.
“We want to make sure Nebraska
won’t hurt more than anyone else
docs.”
If the state were at a disadvan
tage, Robak said, Nebraska would
work with smaller states to make sure
damaging parts of the plan were de
feated.
“We’ll make sure that doesn’t hap
pen,” she said. “We’U let Congress
know what’s happening.”
Robak addressed a gathering of
state, county and city government
officials during Gov. Ben Nelson’s
Summit on Government Efficiency.
The day-long conference drew near
ly 200 officials from across the state
and focused on health care, educa
tion and economic development.
Coordinating Nebraska health-care
reform with President Clinton’s fed
eral proposal made the property tax
issue “look like cake,” she said.
Robak said the federal government
spent $838.5 billion on health care in
1992, which consisted of 14 percent
of the nation’s gross national prod
uct.
If current trends continue, health
care will make up 19 percent of the
GNP by the year 2000, she said.
In 1980, Nebraska spent $110 mil
lion dollars on Medicaid, Robak said.
In 1990, that number bulged to $300
million.
Unless significant changes are
made on health care, the state will
spend $600 million on Medicaid next
year, she said.
“These statistics are just amazing
to me,” Robak said.
Robak said Nebraskans’ fears con
cerning Clinton’s plan were justified.
“Many of you have a fear of what’s
to come,” she said. “You’re wonder
ing, will I pay more and get less?”
Robak cited a recent poll that said
60 percent of Americans believed
they would pay more and get less if a
health care package was pushed
through Congress.
The responses from the survey,
however, show Americans have a
strong concern with health care re
form, she said.
“People care about health care.
They’re afraid and for a good rea
son,” she said.
The lieutenant governor said Ne
braskans needed to make sure they
were satisfied with whatever plan
Congress passed.
“We must make sure Nebraska is
fit with the solution, and that it
doesn’t work with just big states like
Texas, California and Florida,”
Robak said.
Continued awareness in Nebraska
is needed for positive results, she
said.
“There arc lots of things (Nebras
kans) need to watch,” Robak said.
“We need to make sure we’re heard
in Washington.”
Robak admitted she hadn’t fin
ished reading the 1,400-plus pages of
the proposal, which will create 59
new federal programs, issue 79 man
dates and bring substantial changes
in the tax code.
The proposal’s density and tech
nical language make it difficult to
understand, Robak said.
“There’s a tremendous amount of
confusion out there,” she said. “I don’t
know how the average person ... can
understand what’s going on with
this.”
UNL’s image tarnished
Spamer worries
about incidents
By Jody Holzworth
Staff Reporter
Reports of a recent hazing inci
dent and an assault will lower UNL’s
image among prospective students,
Chancellor Graham Spanier said
Tuesday at an Academic Senate meet
ing.
_ Jeff Knoll, a
freshman from
Ogallala, fell last
Wednesday from
a third-floor win
dow at the Phi
QPNATP Gamma Delta
|,Jp fraternity house.
University offi
cials said Knoll was hazed before the
accident.
Boon-Chung “Marco” Ong, a jun
ior marketing major from Malaysia,
was beaten and kicked in the head
outside the Nebraska Union on Oct.
17.
Spanier said questions about inci
dents such as these were among the
most-asked by high school students
deciding where to attend college.
“This does not help the universi
ty’s image,” Spanicr said. “We will
continue to pay attention to such con
cerns in the future.”
The university will work to pre
vent similar incidents from happen
ing, he said.
Spanicr said that in the Ong as
sault, however, the university
couldn’t have prevented the beating
directly.
A “few individuals acted in a very
inappropriate way," he said.
The university also will work to
end hazing, he said.
Spanier said hazing was not toler
ated at UNL.
“Hazing has no place in a univer
sity like ours,” he said.
Spanier said he was impressed
with the Interfraternity Council’s co
operation to end it.
But he said the recent hazing epi
sode was an exception to the usual
behavior of greek members.
Spanier said he generally was im
pressed with the about- 1,000 Uni
versity of Nebraska-Lincoln students
involved in the greek system.
In other business, the senate dis
cussed the ongoing issue of adding a
separate engineering college at the
University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Outside consultants are studying
the feasibility of adding the college,
said Stan Liberty, dean of UNL’s
College of Engineering and Tech
nology.
Omaha industry needs are greater
than what UNO’s present engineer
ing program can meet, Liberty said.
However, Liberty said the UNO
program wasn’t the only one with
needs.
The University of Nebraska sys
tem needs more funding for engi
neering, he said. The lack of resourc
es in Omaha is symptomatic of the
entire system, he said.
Liberty said his main concern with
adding the college was that it would
increase the fierce competition for
scarce resources and dilute the quali
ty of engineering education in Ne
braska.
Liberty said it was not feasible to
reallocate UNL funds to create the
UNO college because its cost would
be “fairly substantial.”
Dick Buhman, a UNO engineer
ing professor, said UNO’s funding
needs often were ignored, while
UNL’s needs were met.
“There is a strong advocacy prob
lem,” Buhman said. “The needs of
the UNO faculty have not been met.”
Because of the lack of funding at
UNO, the number of faculty mem
bers has decreased, he said. Students
also can no longer get an industrial
or general engineering degree there,
he said.
Travis Heying/DN
Mirror image
Matt Auch Moedy, a junior fine arts major, takes a closer look at himself while
painting his self-portrait Tuesday afternoon in Andrews Hall.
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