| SPORTS I At E
Swinging through Brewhaha October 21,1997
NU place-kicker has hit his stride making his Spilker Ales’ rising popularity has owner Sam
last seven attempts including a season best 41 - Spilker laughing all die way back to the convert- WMTER
yarder against Texas Tech. PAGE 7 _ ed Cortland bank in which he brews. PAGE 9 Partly sunny, high 49. Clj ght, low 27.
VOL. 97 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 41
UNMC, VA center join to fight debt
■ Two hospitals promise
to share research and
patient responsibilities.
By Erin Gibson
Senior Reporter
Better patient care and stronger
medical research programs should
result from a new relationship between
the University of Nebraska Medical
Center and Veterans Affairs Medical
Center in Omaha.
The two health-care providers,
which have kept ties through research
and education since 1946, recently
announced plans to form a stronger
cooperative relationship in the areas of
education, research, clinical services
and administration.
“We hope for a reduction in costs,”
said VA hospital director John
Phillips.
Because University Hospital now
operates jointly with privately owned
Clarkson Hospital under the name
Nebraska Health System, the planned
relationship will be one of the nation’s
first to include federal, state and pri
vate health agencies.
Phillips said the move would help
the hospitals develop means of better
treating patients while cutting expens
es and maintaining quality in hospital
facilities.
“We must address budget deficits
as a government agency,” Phillips said,
regarding the national debt’s effect on
veterans’ health care services. “This
move will help us do that in the most
cost effective way.”
For instance, the VA moved its
bone densitometer, a device to mea
sure patients’ bone density, to
University Hospital’s radiology
department, where both hospitals can
use the device to diagnose and treat
patients.
Otherwise, the university would
have had to purchase its own device,
he said.
Other collaborations of money and
resources will help develop medical
centers of excellence, said Harold
Maurer, dean of the UNMC College of
Medicine.
The university presented a
$100,000 research grant to the VA’s
alcohol and liver treatment program,
Maurer said. Liver disease treatment is
a strength of both institutions, he said.
The institutions also hope to devel
op a cutting-edge arthritis treatment
program. Nationally known doctors in
this area now practice at Clarkson and
VA hospitals, Maurer said.
University and VA hospitals have
collaborated on many research and
educational programs, he said.
Seventy-three physicians now
have appointments at both hospitals
and generated more than $2.7 million
in research grants last year.
Maurer said the move would not
affect UNMC students’ access to the
VA hospital, where 51 resident physi
cians are involved in residency train
ing.
About 123 students each year
receive some medical training and
patient-treatment experience at the VA
hospital, he said, resulting in every
UNMC student receiving some med
ical training there.
Additional medical education
courses will develop to offer practic
ing physicians continuing medical
education courses and to offer out
state Nebraska doctors distance-learn
ing courses on new medical technolo
gy, Maurer said.
Phillips said such courses would
be developed by a variety of teams,
representing UNMC and VA hospitals,
which would identify opportunities for
collaboration in education, research
and clinical operations.
Maurer said UNMC faculty is pos
itive the collaboration will benefit die
citizens and veterans of Nebraska.
“I think this is just a very positive
endeavor,” Phillips said.
UNL professor, 59,
-* ---'r*~— -—
BY MATTHEWi^AITE
Senior Reporter
Remembered for his wit and his
ability to reach students in large lec
ture halls, political science Professor
Robert Miewald’s funeral services
will be today.
Miewald, an expert in the politics
of public administration and state
government, died of a heart attack
Saturday. He was 59.
Services for Miewald will be at 4
p.m. in the Butherus, Maser and
Love Funeral Home, 4040 A St.
“He was outstanding, especially
in the large introductory sections of
American government,” said David
Forsythe, chairman of the political
science department. “He somehow
found a way to communicate really
well with UNL students despite that
format.
“Some of the rest of us struggle
to find a way to reach students when
you have a class of 200 people.”
Bom May 16, 1938, in Chinook,
Mont., Miewald got his bachelor’s
degree in political science at the
University of Oregon in 1960. In
1961, he joined the Army for two
years, and in 1966, he obtained his
doctorate in political science from
the University of Colorado.
His first political science teach
ing job was at California State
University, Long Beach from 1966
Please see DEATH on 6
Johnsgard completes
book on nesting habits
By Hui-Chin Lim
Staff Reporter
Paul Johnsgard is trying to fill his
3-foot bookshelf...
... with books he has written him
self.
The University of Nebraska
Lincoln biological sciences professor
is one step closer to his goal with his
36th book, “The Avian Brood
Parasites: Deception at-the Nest.” Two
more books are written and waiting to
be published, he said.
Johnsgard is one of the most pub
lished UNL professors, his colleague
and fellow biological sciences
Professor John Janovy said.
“(He is) a remarkable person that
never fails to accomplish anything he
has ever started.”
■rs?.: ■ ,-v
Though most of Johnsgard’s
works are reference books about
birds, he has also written the about the
Sandhills, the Platte River and mytho
logical animals. Some books are writ
ten for scientists and researchers; oth
ers for children, he said.
Johnsgard said his love for birds
started with a red-winged blackbird.
As a 5-year-old in a small North
Dakota town, his grade-school
teacher showed him a stuffed red
winged blackbird, a moment that
blossomed into a life passionately
devoted to studying birds, he said.
Such artifacts still hold his fasci
nation. His tiny office in Manter Hall
is home to his collection of artifacts
from all over the world. Wooden
birds, carved by his own hand, sit on
Please see BIRDS on 6
Scott McClurg/DN
COMEDIAN WENDI FOX speaks to a near capacity crowd Monday evening at the Lied Center lor Performing Arts.
She talked about being raised in an alcoholic environment and the effects it had on her life.
Sober sentence given
By Sarah Baker
Assignment Reporter
For stand-up comedian Wendi
Fox, the partying never lasted long
while she was drinking.
Fox, who is sober now, said
she’d buzz for 15 minutes after she
started drinking, then she would
pass out.
Fox was the keynote speaker at
the 14th annual Do it Sober assem
bly, which was sponsored by
Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity
and Alpha Omicron Pi Sorority.
The event’s, which aim is to show
students how alcohol can affect
them, was in Lied Center for
Performing Arts Monday night.
Fox, who has spent the past six
years speaking about alcoholism
to college students, has a unique
approach to her “Alcoholic
Insanity Tour” speech.
“If you came here for a lecture,
you’re in the wrong place,” she
said: “We’re here to have a good
time.”
Fox said she recently* quit
drinking because she “sucked at
it.”
“One time I was drinking at a
bar in Texas, and they stopped
serving me, so I went to Mexico,”
Fox said. “When you cross the bor
der to get a beer, it’s time to take a
left into some kind of program.”
Fox said she came from an
Please see SOBER on 6
Read the Daily Nebraskan on the World-Wide Web at http: / / www.unl.edu/DailyNeb
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