6A = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2002
$15.95
Laverence Topeka
2112 W. $ 25^{th} $ 4043 SW $ 10^{th} $
838-3500 273-0100
Graduates must update coverage
By Nathan Dayani
ndayani.kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
By Nathan Dayani
Zack Lerner graduates in December. Like many of his graduating peers, Lerner will be faced with a challenging rite of passage: finding a new health insurance policy.
"If I don't have it, I'm going to bein trouble," said Lerner, Prairie Village senior. "I have a lot of medical bills because I'm a weightlifter."
Almost all KU undergraduate students are insured either through their parents' or the University's health insurance plans, said Carrie Strahm, administrative assistant at the Watkins Health Center insurance office. She said MEGA Life insurance, a Dallas-based firm, covered students at the University.
Graham Bailey, director of public relations at the Blue Cross and Blue Shield headquarters in Topeka, said students preparing to graduate should become familiar with the benefits of their insurance policy and find out when it expires.
Strahm said students could maintain eligibility with the University plan after they graduated if they continued to take seven or more credit hours at the University and met other full-time student requirements.
Bailey said students insured by their parents generally lost their eligibility between the ages of 23 to 25, because they were no longer considered to be dependent on their parents.
Although insurance policies vary, Strahm and Bailey said students could usually continue to be insured through their parents' policy after graduation.
"As a general rule, most companies provide the opportunity for students to continue to be covered on their parents' policy," Bailey said. "Usually, those policies are more expensive if you're in good health than going out and finding a policy out on your own."
However, Bailey said students should consider purchasing temporary insurance until they found a job that offered comprehensive coverage.
Jeff Wittier graduated from the University in May 2002 and has been without health insurance for about six months.
"I'm a pretty healthy person, but there's always the risk that a traffic accident or something else could cost me or my family a significant amount of money," said Whittier, Lawrence resident.
Whittier said he recently bought a temporary health insurance plan to protect him until his policy with his new employer would begin. He said his employer's health insurance benefits were an important issue when he searched for a full-time job.
"I definitely looked for places that offered health coverage," Whittier said.
ExxonMobil donates to University
—Edited by Adam Pracht
By Lindsay Hanson
By Lindsay Hanson
lhanson@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
quadrupled by the company donation.
A Houston-based oil company, ExxonMobil, has donated more than $606,000 since the Kansas University Endowment Association began its KU First campaign last fall, according to an Endowment Association press release yesterday.
Dale Seuferling, president of the Endowment Association, said ExxonMobil's donations came at a good time.
The donation amount came from a 3-to-1 matching gift program. Under that program an employee or retiree that gives up to $5,000 will have that amount
"Corporate support as generous as this is particularly helpful at a time when much corporate philanthropy is being reduced at a difficult economic time," he said.
Seuferling said the $202,000 in employee-driven donations that the company matched affected all aspects of the University. The money has been applied
to programs in the arts, scholarships, equipment and others, he said.
"A significant benefit of a matching program like Exxon-Mobil is that it can be used to benefit virtually any program across the University," Seutlering said.
Leaders of the KU First campaign said they wanted to complete their fund raising goal of $500 million by the campaign's end in 2004. All donations from ExxonMobil go toward that goal.
— Edited by Chris Wintering
KWANZAA
Principles to Live By Friday November 22 @ ECM
KWANZAA
A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture
Kwanzaa was created to introduce and reinforce seven basic values of African culture which contribute to building and reinforcing family, community and culture among African American people as well as Africans throughout the world. These values are called the Nguzo Saba which in Swahili means "the Seven Principles." Developed by Dr. Maulana Karenga, the Nguzo Saba stand at the heart of the origin and meaning of Kwanzaa, for it is these values which are not only the building blocks for community but also serve to reinforce and enhance them.
Friday November 22 @ ECM 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Please contribute to the collective salad by bringing a fresh fruit or vegetable!
Sponsored, in part, by The Coca-Cola Program and
For information, please contact: 785.979.6071 or jonest33@hotmail.com