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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1995)
Employees’ health tests negative By Chad Lorenz Start Reporter Nebraska Press employees were relieved Friday when they learned they tested negative for infection of three respiratory dis eases. “I think morale took a giant step forward today,” said Dan Ross, the company’s interim di rector. University administrators re ported to Nebraska Press staffthat the three diseases associated with “sick building syndrome” — Histoplasmosis, Mycoplasma and Legionella — were not detected in their lung and blood tests, Ross said. Employees had their blood and lungs tested after many com plained of upper-respiratory symptoms such as coughing, sneezing and severe headaches, Ross said. The outbreak of symp toms caused concern over the building’s air quality, he said. But Phyllis Larsen, director of public relations at the University ofNebraska-Lincoln, said the tests showed a higher rate of abnormal ity than usual. Some tests indi cated exposure to Legionella but not infection, she said. James Main, assistant vice chancellor for business and fi nance, said more testing would be done until those unusual results could be explained. “Until we get hard-core facts, we don’t know whether to go right, left or turn around or where to go with this,” he said. Main said the building’s air also was tested for contamina tion. Biologists took 12 to 15 samples from the air-handling sys tem and tested them for bacteria cultures, Main said. Those test results will not be available for two weeks. The air-handling system will be cleaned or replaced when the cause ofthe problem is pinpointed, Main said. Regents delay computer, raise coaches’ pay NU REGENTS Engineering super computer gets tabled By Jeffrey Robb Senior Reporter The NU Board of Regents tabled a measure Saturday that would have approved the purchase of a $400,000 super computer for the College of Engineering and Technology. Regent Drew Miller of Papillion said he would like to see more infor mation and have the college prove its need before spending the money. Miller said the computer may not even be necessary as other universities allow their equip ment to be used for free. In other busi ness, the regents ap proved $19,000 worth of salary in creases for four ath letic coaches. The increases took effect last October. Francis Allen, director of the gym nastics program, will make $62,000, up from $58,952. Cal Bentz, director of the swim mingprogram, also will make $62,000 after making $56,506. Robin Krapfl, coach of the women’s golf team, will make $30,000, up from $23,475. Gary Pepin, coach of the track and field team, will make $62,000 after having a salary of $58,142. UNL Chancellor Graham Spanier said the coaches were reviewed in the fall. The changes are based on perfor mance and by the need to provide competitive salaries, Spanier said. The board also approved the issu ance of bonds that would finance the surfacing of parking lots, the acquisi tion of the Beta Sigma Psi Fraternity house and two apartment buildings and the addition of air conditioning to Neihardt Hall. The bonds for the parking lot project, amounting to $2.55 million, will be used to cover lots on City and East campuses. The bonds for the other projects will total $2.85 million. Travis Heying/DN UNL Student Regent Shawntell Hurtgen, left, and UNO Student Regent Justin Peterson congratulate UNL history professor Patrice Berger, who received a creative teaching award during Saturday’s NU Board of Regents meeting. Regent Continued from Page 1 Zatechka, the former director of hous ing who spoke in favor of the policy, said the policy wasn’t a perfect solu tion, but it would help. “I don’t have the perfect solution to guns on this campus, in this society. I just don’t know,”Zatechka said. “But I think this is a step in the right direc tion.” Zatechka said UNL was not insu lated from the danger that guns pose, pointing to about seven firearms vio lations in residence halls in the past two years, a failed attempt to shoot a semi-automatic rifle into a classroom and the shooting of a UNL Police officer. Hunters who keep their guns on campus aren ’t reckless,Zatechka said, but even they aren’t protected from accidents. “It’s going to take one time... when we could have somebody dead,” Zatechka said. Zatechka said driving a few miles to the police station was a minor in convenience. The university was be ing generous by allowing the guns at all, he said; other Big Eight schools and the University of Nebraska at Kearney ban all firearms. Those universities have had no trouble enforcing their policies, Zatechka said. If UNL makes the policy clear and shows the conse quences of breaking the policy, he said, students would follow it. Philip Cilliers, president of the Residence Hall Association, spoke at the meeting against the policy. Stu dents will ignore the new rule, Cilliers said. “What will happen, we think, is that instead of storing them with the police, there will be more guns in rooms,” he said. “That’s less control than we have now.” Regent Drew Miller of Papillion, agreed with Cilliers, saying he had heard similar student complaints. Miller offered an amendment, which failed, that would have kept the weapons policy the same. Union Continued from Page 1 ing student fees raised $40 a year when students already faced stiff costs to attend school. Tuition and fees come out of the same pocket, he said. But James Griesen, vice chancel lor for student affairs, said student fees would remain low compared to other Big Eight and peer schools, de spite the increase. Besides, he said, students favored the expansion by voting for it in the March election. Regent Charles Wilson ofLincoln, agreed. “If the students are the ones that use it, if the students are paying for it and if students want it... I don’t under stand why we should intervene to stop it,” he said. The university now must hire an architecture team to design the project and gain the approval of the Coordi nating Commission for Postsecondary Education. Unfortunately, our competitor is struggling with this simple test: O True O False Now we’re not saying anyone’s lying, you understand. It’s just The Princeton Review can’t seem to figure out exactly what’s true. Their advertised average LSAT score improvement dropped from “10+ points” in 1993 to 7.5 last year. Now an arbitration panel has ruled that their “study” really only supported an average improvement of 6.9 points. That same arbitration panel ruled similarly for their MCAT, GRE and GMAT studies. 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