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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 1997)
Campus WIC clinics close; thousands may wait for aid WIC from page 1 severe cutbacks. Cutbacks included the closing of two UNL clinics that operated once a month from Uni versity Health Center offices on City Campus and in the Nebraska East Union, she said. Staff and operating hours have also been reduced at other clinics, including Family Service’s main clinic at Seventh and J streets, she said. TVouba said a waiting list and clinic cutbacks came after the U.S. Department of Agriculture an nounced Nebraska’s WIC program would receive about $743,000 less in the 1997 fiscal year than esti mated last October. The funding shortfall is height ened by food costs that rose about 3.3 percent between August 1995 and August 1996, according to the Consumer Price Index. The cost of dairy products rose 8.9 percent dur ing that period. As a result, Trouba said only pregnant or breast-feeding women and infants and children with a high risk of malnutrition will con tinue to be priorities of the Ne braska WIC program. Other new applicants wifi be placed on a wait ing list, sorted by their level of need, until funding to provide ser vices is available. Applicants with the greatest need will receive aid first, Trouba said. Clients on WIC will not lose their aid until they renew their ap plication, she said. But women must renew their application after giving birth, and children must have their application renewed ev ery six months, Ttouba said. Trouba said federal studies show WIC improves the health of mothers and babies, and saves health care dollars by preventing malnutrition and helping clients have healthier babies. “For every dollar spent on WIC, three dollars are saved on Medi care,” TVouba said. And Wallen said WIC program aid is essential to families being able to afford milk, juice and other basic but expensive staple food items that keep children healthy. “For many families that’s just the difference that keeps their heads above water,” she said. The lack of aid will have a big affect on these families, Wallen said, which help make up the 5,200 Lincoln residents who are WIC cli ents. Wallen said she had a client Tuesday morning who said she could not afford milk, cheese or juice for her children without WIC. “She said she didn’t know what she would do,” Wallen said. Trouba said county health offi cials are concerned how potential malnutrition threatens some needy Nebraska children. Food banks and churches may be asked to fill the needs of those clients forced, to wait. But county WIC directors are also concerned they will not have funds necessary to maintain WIC program clinics’ administrative services, Trouba said. “They’re concerned about be ing able to provide access to WIC clinics and being able to provide adequate staff,” Trouba said. About $391,000 of the total funding shortfall lies in adminis trative needs, she said. Wallen said this means about a 20 percent budget cut locally. Lin coln WIC clinics can not maintain the same operating hours and lo cations with this cut, she said. “Our heart first goes out to the client that doesn’t have milk in the house,” Wallen said. But well-staffed clinics are nec essary parts of the WIC program, she said. Trouba said clinics provide nu trition counseling and evaluation, as well as help mothers find pre natal care. Many clinics in Ne braska share space with immuni zation clinics, reproductive health care services or the Head Start pro gram for young children, she said. There is a possibility that Ne braska could get additional fund ing as states return unused portions of WIC funding to the federal gov ernment, Trouba said. “But there is no guarantee,” she said. Most years, states return enough WIC funds to allow some funds to carry over into the follow ing fiscal year. Congress depended on a usual carry-over when decid ing the level of 1997 WIC fund ing, Trouba said. But last year, there was no carry over of funds, she said. Wallen said she’s heard rumors that Congress will pass an emer gency bill to fill the WIC funding gap. But funding could not come quickly enough for local WIC clin ics and clients who are desperate for help now, she said. “It’s just horrible.” Senate argues post-tenure review By Sabah Baker Staff Reporter Sponsors of a post-tenure review proposal went to the Academic Sen ate TUesday hoping to call the idea to a vote. But objections and controversy postponed a vote until the senate con siders amendments next month. Although the new policy didn’t arrive at the committee with a formal recommendation, many of the mem bers seemed upset with some of the points the document presented. Hugh Genoways, professor of mu seums, was one who voiced com plaints concerning the proposal. “This document presents an inter ference in our academic freedom. How can you set goals so far in advance and make them so vague?” The proposal wbuld mandate re views for professors who have earned tenure to “provide a broader view of progress toward achievement of per sonal, departmental and university goals.” Now, tenured professors aren’t re quired to face such a review. Others opposed to the proposal said post-tenure review would waste time and involve unnecessary paperwork. Leo Chouinard, professor of math ematics and statistics, said the amount of time spent on paperwork for the review process would take up time professors need to do research and other required work. “I want to question whether we should pass this proposal at all,” Chouinard said. “The fact is that we already do this, and maybe we should make that more apparent.” Chancellor James Moeser listened to aU the senate’s comments and chal lenged the post-tenure complaints. “It’s in our best interests to sup port post-tenure review,” Moeser said. “It is important to protect our aca demic freedom. This proposal is the natural evolution for our academic career, and now is the right time for it” Although many members of the senate disagreed with the proposal, some supported it. Academic Senate President-elect Jim Ford disagreed with the statement that the proposal had a negative tone. “All the policies that are presented must be in consonance with already existing policies,” Ford said. “The sen ate should cooperate in the implemen tation of the policy, because if we don’t do it then the chancellor will.” Ford also stressed that the docu ment satisfied the requirements that he had for post-tenure reviewed that it raised few or no new dangers to fac ulty members. The Academic Senate may vote on a proposal as early as March. Road to resolution paved by meeting MEETING from page 1 Such dialogue wasn’t possible un til recently, according to James Smith, UNL’s director of multicultural affairs. “You wouldn’t have seen that IS, 20 years ago. “Our students need to be complimented for weathering the storm, keeping the boat afloat—now they’re headed to the shore” Smith said it was possible for mi nority students to respond in a posi tive way because of progress made by student protesters years ago. “They did all that noisy stuff,” Smith said. “The student today can correctly participate in the system.” ~ The closed meeting was called by APU because the organization thought the university handled the situation incorrectly, Adair Shanks, APU vice president, Smith said black students were left out when university officials tried to resolve things after the cross burning. “We never said ‘Can we talk to you?’ We missed the ball park.” Shanks said APU wanted to talk about revising the Student Code of Conduct. “We need to have ways African American students can feel safe,” Shanks said “We don’t feel safe.” Smith said the Code of Conduct is sufficient in protecting against attacks on an individual. But he said the cross burning was, in effect, an attack against an entire group. Sigma Chi president Craig Vacek said the meeting went well and cleared up concerns. “This was the first chance to put some faces with the opposite side of this thing,” Vacek said. “It changed the tone of this from adversarial to one of us working together.” He said there would be no more cross burnings by his fraternity. Vice Chancellor for Student Af fairs James Griesen said the meeting would help open Up conversations among UNL students. “We’ll seize this opportunity to promote more dialogue between the groups,” Griesen said. By no means did the meeting clear up everything, though. Changes may be slow, Shanks said. Smith said he hoped meeting with the APU would set a precedent. “We need to make sure it is not unusuaMbr students of color to be part of the decision-making process,” he said. * I---’ - ~ f - -