Electrician suffers shock, bums at UNL By Josh Funk Senior Reporter An electrical contractor working with power lines at Memorial Stadium on Thursday afternoon was electrically shocked and taken to a hospital, where he was listed in good con dition Thursday afternoon. Kelly Schroer, 25, an employee of Shanahan Mechanical and Electric Inc., was badly burned when his arm accidentally brushed against two live power lines in the stadi um’s power room, University Police Sgt. Mylo Bushing said. The electricity coursed through his body. A stadium employee who was painting a door near the power room, which is just inside gate 24, saw a bright flash in the power room just before Schroer staggered^*#. J £ Although Schroer was coherent, he was visibly burned *-> on the right side of his face, neck and right arm. He was shaken, and some of his hair had been burned off, Bushing said. Schroer had been working on terminating some wires at the stadium’s electrical switch board when the accident hap pened. Paramedics took Schroer to Saint Elizabeth Community Health Center, where he was treated for burns. Schroer was admitted to the burn center so doctors could observe him overnight. Officials from Shanahan Mechanical and Electric could not be reached for comment Thursday. SALON >4711 Huntington • 464-7777 . Call for an appointment February Special ^40 day O^L tanning card We're More Than You Think! Qon^^k^^^ReproductiveH^iCare 13 Planned Parenthood® of uncom Education & Administrative Offices 2246 ‘O’ Street 441-3332 Clinics: 3705 South 441-3333 2246 ‘O’ Street 441-3300 ENTERPRISE: THE ENTERPRISE RENT-A-CAR TEAM, representing the largest car rental company in America, Invites you to visit us during 2 days of events on campus. Ask questions, explore opportunities with us, and learn just how ENTERPRISE can jump-start your career in business management. Schedule of events: On-campus interviews Monday March 9, 1998 Sign up In career services UNL General Job Fair Wednesday March I I , 1998 Nebraska Union > 9:30am - 3pm ^ :■ Website: www4Nrac.com Equal Opportunity Employer ^ V By Joy Ludwig Staff Reporter Nebraska may possess an abun dance of water in its lakes, streams and aquifers; but how that wat^r is allocated concerns ? some * Nebraskans. c *• Two bills discussed in the Natural Resources Committee Thursday both propose legislation to control die sale, lease and transfer of . water rights by the owner to another person who would be required to use it for a beneficial purpose. Although both bills concern the same issue, they each have a differ ent approach. LB 1212 would place no restric tions on the sale, lease or transfer of water rights. But LB 1213 would require the Department of Water Resource to evaluate the economic, environmen tal and physical impacts on the land that could result by changing the use of or transfer of the water to a differ ent place. Only after doing a thor ough evaluation could the depart ment approve a permit. Sen: Bob Wickersham of Harrison, the bill’s sponsor, said LB 1213 would allow people to use industrial water for agricultural uses or agricultural water for domestic uses. Current law does not allow water uses to be transferred, he said, but the bill could allow for more eco nomical water use after the impacts and benefits were examined. However, Bob Hilger of David City disagreed. He said he felt the water use should not be changed. “Nebraska is not experiencing a water scarcity problem,” he said. If less water was allocated for agricultural use, crops could be damaged, and it could leave a lasting effect on smaller communities, said Hilger, who represents Nebraskans First, a group of farmers dedicated to.protecting Nebraska’s under ground water. Bryce Neidig, Nebraska Farm Bureau president, also opposed the bill's. He said the leasing, selling or transferring of water rights would not work the way senators thoOght it might, no matter how^ much money was involved. “Water does not have a price. It is not for sale,” he said. But Loren Schmidt of Bellwood said he thought the bills would help control the state’s water resources, not create problems. “The farther west you get and the farther north you get, the more arid the climate is and the more impor tant the water is,” he said. Schmidt said he thought laws should be established in order to deter other states that might want to tap into Nebraska’s water in the future. But if water does leave the state, he said, people need to be compensated. Blood drive draws students By Josh Knaub Staff Reporter UNL freshman Amy Patras’ face remained calm. “All done?” she asked. Patras had just donated blood for the first time, joining about 400 other students who gave during Wednesday’s University of Nebraska-Lincoln on-campus blood drive. Patras and other donors said they found giving blood an easy, profes sionally handled and nearly painless process, despite myths of large nee dles and Nazi nurses. Patras said she and other Love P~ffjratcISciHeH'fo’give’btoocl after talk ing with their hall health aide. “I figured now is as good a time as any,” Patras said, and headed to the temporary blood-drive center in the Nebraska Union. Her donation process began by answering about 50 health-related questions. The questions serve as a prescreening to the donation process. All blood samples are tested several times for many blood-borne illnesses, including AIDS, said a nurse screening potential donors. On Tuesday, 53 candidates were weeded out by the screening process. Patras passed the screening and moved to a lawn-chair-type cot to donate. Orange-colored iodine was used to disinfect the area just below her inner elbow. There, the blood would be drawn. Patras feared the initial insertion of the needle and tensed up slightly. A phlebotomist - a person who draws blood - slid the needle into Patras’ arm. She §aid it didn’t was both ^^^^^^average donor, because most donors are calm about giving blood and feel no side effects. But the most common side effect of donating is fainting, especially for first-time donors, they said. “People have a lot of nervous ness about giving blood, and when they realize that it’s not that bad, their blood pressure just drops and they faint,” one phlebotomist said. It normally takes between five and eight minutes to draw a pint of blood. Then the needle is removed and the already-labeled bag is stored for transportation. Donors are asked to raise their arm for a few moments, then the arm is bandaged. After waiting about a minute, they are escorted to a wait ing room where food and beverages are available. “Ready?” a volunteer in a health aide T-shirt asks. “I guess so,” Patras said. After waiting 15 minutes anv i in I',,-* ' jjLi1 HxHij h $ Those screening donors said they would notify Patras within the next week if her blood tested positive for any diseases. Patras smiled, washed down her donut with one last sip of lemonade and rose to leave. “That was much more easy than I expected.” Freshmen face higher standards RIGOR from page 1 5 classes had become any harder. “If (professors) haven’t increased their expectations, thenlt wasn’t any mote rigorous than before,” Neuhaus said. - UNL administratorsare encour aging instructors to step up their expectations, because the university is no longer “drug down” by the less prepared students, said Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs James Griesen. But UNL will not become an elite campus for only top high school stu dents. “That’s not our role,” Griesen said. “We’re an institution that has been there for everybody, and will always be there for everybody.” Stan Maliszewski, director of counselors of the Omaha Public Schools, said students who meet the requirements would have a better chance at succeeding. “There’s a strong correlation between the rigor of courses that stu dents have been taking in high school and those characteristics carrying over into their freshman year,” he said. “There’s no question more stu dents are experiencing more rigor in their course work as a result of the core requirements.”