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University Daily Kansan, April 21, 1983
Med Center volunteers honored for work
By MICHAEL BECK
Staff Reporter
Every morning, five days a week, a crew of laborers make their way to their posts at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
The crew is never the same — some are retired businessmen, some are bourneyes and others are students. The police station force at the hospital — volunteers.
And this week, in accordance with National Volunteer Week, the Med Center acknowledged its volunteers, who served in all of the 44,275 hours of service last year.
THE VOLUNTEERS RECEIVED lettets from patients and staff members thanking them for their dedication. And Tuesday, the Med Center held a banquet for volunteers in appreciation of their dedicated service.
Nedde. Pegg, director of volunteer services at the Med Center, said that the volunteers deserved recognition and the myrtle of functions they served.
Volunteers at the Med Center keep track of who is admitted and when they check out, she said, so they can deliver about 600 flowers and about 7,500 pieces of mail a month to patients in the hospital.
Volunteers also work in two different waiting rooms in the hospital, keep records for psychology testing, help admit patients to their rooms, escort patients to tests and help visitors find their way through the labyrinth of a hospital.
"What we do is not all that important," said Whit Young, a 77-year-old volunteer. "We are the go-fers and handymen. Anybody could do what we do. But our doing these things saves the staff time."
YOUNG'S WIFE, JANET, SAID,
"Perhaps we can make the patient's stay just a little easier."
Pegg said that last month, 142 volunteers, 22 of whom were Red Cross volunteers from Shawnee Mission, assisted doctors and staff.
Most of the volunteers are retired people, she said, who lend one to three days of the week to the Med Center. Others work on other civic and religious organizations.
"This work gives many of us something to do besides sit at home and drink," said Dale Mullens, who has served in services to the Med Center for 17 years.
"Most of us were active in PTA and other things, but when our children left home we decided to do something different."
And the volunteers are doing some
thing different. Harriet de Melo works in an intensive care unit waiting room, keeping relatives company, serving coffee and making the room as comfortable as possible.
MANY PATIENTS REMAIN IN intensive care for long periods of time and families are only allotted 20 minutes of visiting time four times a day. So relatives and friends of patients in intensive care are usually around the waiting room, adjacent the intensive rooms, for days, sometimes weeks.
Shirley Shalla, a California resident, had waited for three weeks for her husband to get out of intensive care.
but they "tell" these people are simply great," she said. "They're very special people. They will talk with you, and keep you sane through it all."
The wife of a patient from Leavenworth was so grateful for the help she got in the waiting room that she decided to cover the rooms for the windows and the waiting room.
A problem she had with the waiting room, however, was that no volunteers or staff were around to help on weekends.
SO NOW, SHE GOES TO the waiting room on weekends to extend the volunteer help to seven days a week.
volunteer help to boost morale.
Another such job for volunteers is the
surgery waiting room on the second floor.
Volunteer Doris Miles has a desk in the surgery waiting room where she keeps track of patients' relatives. And when a surgeon needs to find relatives to tell them the progress of an operation, she can tell him where they are.
Miles said, "I'm used to being busy doing something besides cleaning house. I feel it's a definite obligation to do it." It's something that should be done."
Nede Pegg said that the surgery waiting room position was one of the most popular jobs in the volunteer service at the Med Center.
service at the nursing care unit.
"That position rarely goes unfilled," she said. "But when it does, the nurses in surgery really holler."
PEGG SAID THAT SHE MAD enough volunteers to help out the staff but that she would like about 60 more volunteers.
the Red Cross could not send any more volunteers to the Med Center, she said, because it did not have any more.
However, Pegg said she was starting to recruit volunteers by going to various organizations and showing a film explaining the roles of a volunteer.
"I would really like to get more volunteers in here," she said. "We could find something for them to do."
New budget plan meets opposition
Museums to celebrate medieval arts
By United Press International
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans failed to reach an agreement yesterday on a compromise 1984 budget plan offered by the White House that would have increased defense spending 7.5 percent, but also raised taxes.
It was the first time the administration had offered to lower its proposed defense spending increase from 10 percent, but it was still more than the 5 percent hike approved by the budget committee.
President Reagan's aides made the offer during a private meeting with Senate Republican leaders and Republican members of the budget committee.
THE SENATORS FAILED to reach an agreement, however, when conservatives objected to the proposed tax increases in the package.
Singer, dancers, jugglers, a fortune teller and various workshops will recreate the life of the Middle Ages during Medieval Day at KU museum.
The activities are in conjunction with International Museum Day and exhibits at the Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art, the Museum of Natural History and Snow Entomological Museum.
THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGIUM Musicum will sing medieval songs accompanied by early instruments in the art museum's central court at 2 p.m.
Workshops on basket weaving, calligraphy, medieval music and wool spinning will begin at 3:15.
KU students will model 14th century fashions while a juggler, dancer,
baggie player and fortune teller perform.
Visitors can make rubbings of facsimile bronzes from English tombs, or try "medieval munchies" of parisley bread, sausage and cheese.
In the Museum of Natural History in Dyche hall, children can play games, color medieval woodcuts or listen to a storyteller.
Alumni Association officers elected
Donald Slawson of Wichita has been elected national president of the University of Kansas Alumni Association; authorizes said this week.
shawson, board chairman and president of Shawson Oil Cos. in Wichita, will begin his 1-year term July 1. He succeeds Dolph Simons Jr., editor and publisher of the Lawrence Journal-World.
and Martha Peterson, Madison, Wis. also were elected.
Robert Mueller, Mission Hills, was elected executive vice president. Four vice presidents, Robert Buehler Beaver, Michael Gannon, and Marianne Glador Horner, San Francisco;
Slawson, a former director of the Alumni Association, is on the advisory boards of the Kansas University Athletic Corporation, Chancellor's Club, KU Development Committee and the School of Business.
Muttler has retired as a senior partner of the Kansas City office of Arthur Young and Co. He is a trustee of the Kansas University Endowment Association and the Omaha University Chair. He received the KU Fred Ellsworth Medal in 1981.
BUEHLER IS STAFF VICE president for governmental relations for the B.F. Goodrich Co.
Eulich is founder and chairman of Vantage Cos. and board chairman of Rodeway Insns of America Inc.
Hornor serves on the board of directors of Community Music School.
Peterson, a 1968 recipient of the Distinguished Service Citation, has retired as president of Beoit College in Wisconsin. She is a former KU dean of women.
Senate OKs insurance with lower premiums
Bv JIM BOLE
Staff Reporter
Next year's group student health insurance policy, which will provide the same coverage as this year's policy but have a lower premium, was passed yesterday by the Student Senate.
An increase in the number of credit hours required to be eligible for a student insurance policy was the main reason for the reduction in premiums, without loss of coverage, said Robert Hunter, a representative with Credit Life Insurance Co., Ohio, the new insurance company.
AN UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT now must be enrolled in at least one credit hour to be eligible for student health insurance. Next semester, you will be enrolled in undergraduate students to be enrolled in at least seven credit hours.
The increase was recommended by the Student Health Advisory Board and approved by the Student Senate. The credit hour requirement has not been changed for more than 10 years.
Mark Holloway, a member of the health board, said the new requirements would disqualify one or two people now insured, but that insurance companies would feel more confident and able to offer cheaper coverage.
Hunter said insurance companies thought that someone might enroll in a one-hour class just to take
advantage of student insurance benefits.
Next year's student health insurance premiums will be $235 for a single student, which is $5 less than this year's premiums. Both this year's and next year's policies provide the same coverage for basic hospitalization, other major medical costs and prescriptions.
PREMIUMS NEXT YEAR WILL be $770 for a married student, a $10 reduction; $745 for a student with children, a $9 reduction; and $1,078 for a married student with children, a $14 reduction
Credit Life Insurance will issue next year's policy, and Self Insurers Services Inc., Shawne Mission, will be the local agent.
Hunter said KU's group insurance coverage was one of the most extensive among the nation's universities.
"Virtually everything is covered; the student will not be surprised with a big bill when he gets out of the hospital." he said.
Most college health insurance policies offer only partial hospitalization coverage, usually have a premium of about $150, have large deductible costs, and do not cover prescription costs, he said.
KEYSTONE STUDENT INSURANCE Co., Texas, which has provided KU's group health insurance since 1980, submitted a $432 bid for single students that did not include basic hospitalization coverage.
House passes two tax hikes
The House voted yesterday to increase state taxes on both cigarettes and alcohol to add almost $25 million to the state's general fund in fiscal year 1984.
Both tax increases are part of the revenue package that Gov. John Carlin has proposed to deal with the state's financial wees.
The House voted 75-47 to double the liquor enforcement tax from 4 percent to 8 percent, which is expected to bring in about $10 million.
The House voted 84-38 to increase the state cigarette tax from 11 cents to 16 cents a pack to add $15 million to the state's general fund.
The House also approved two amendments to the cigarette tax bill.
The first amendment, proposed by State Rep. Vic Miller, D-Topeka, would increase the state's cigarette tax by 8
more cents beginning Oct. 31, 1985, if Congress does not extend the federal cigarette tax beyond that date.
WHEN CONGRESS AGREED to raise the federal cigarette tax by 8 cents a pack, it also agreed that the tax would expire on Oct. 31, 1985. If Congress agreed and the tax would that date, taxes on cigarettes will drop 8 cents a pack.
But cigarette prices probably will not decrease by the same amount if the tax is not renewed, Miller said, and the state may as well profit from the elimination of the federal tax.
The second amendment, proposed by State Rep. Rochelle Chronister, RNeodesha, would allow the state to tunnel part of the revenues from the cigarette tax into county health departments.
JAYHAWKER TOWERS APARTMENTS
1603 W. Fifteenth 913-843-4993
RELIGION AND SOCIAL LIFE IN
JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY & ISLAM
a panel discussion by
Dr. Daniel Breslauer, Jewish Scholar and Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at KU
Dr. Sandi Zimdars - Schwartz, Scholar of Christian Thought and professor in the Department of Religious Studies at KU
Dr. Jamal Badawi, Islamic Author and professor at St.Mary's University, Canada
7:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 23
Alderson Auditorium Kansas Union
All Are Welcome!
Sponsored by the Islamic Center of Lawrence (MSA)
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