THIS WEEK
March 2 7 .1 9 8 9 Vol. 18, No. 30
THE WEEKLY NEW SPAPER O F INDIANA UNIVERSITY-PURDUE UNIVERSITY A T
Asbestos cleanup expensive and
By JEFFREY DeHEKDT Asbestos was once as common a building material as concrete.
Its use was even mandated as a fire retardant at one time.
That was before the early ’70s when it was discovered to be a health threat when broken into airborne fibers.
Since then, asbestos has b e
come a growing concern on the IUPUI campus where a majority o f the buildings were built be
fore its use was prohibited.
Richard Strong, director o f the Department o f Environmental Health and Safety at IUPUI, said he is expanding the as
bestos area o f the department by hiring more personnel to combat the present asbestos problem, but clean-up is still costly.
“Asbestos clean up is an ex
pensive job," Strong said, and explained that two firms were usually called for removal o f a s
bestos for small jobs, but any job projected to cost more than
$5,000 is bid on by several dif
ferent asbestos removal com panies.
Funds for the removal projects come from the general funds through the Physical Plant. A s
bestos removal for any o f th»
hospitals are funded by the hos pitals themselves.
H ie asbestos cleaning procesi is slowed through lack o f funds said Strong. Many o f the oldei buildings will have to wait fore the department and Physical Plant get to them.
According to Strong ar bestos removal time doesn’t exist. H ie basic maintenance schedule followed by the Physical Plant is the blueprint for future said Strong.
“What we hi schedule of tivities," said the renovation projects where ---—1 he added.
H ie Physical Plant is g<
ly responsible for building and grounds maintenance around the campus.
Whenever the Physical Plant finds an area suspected o f con- See ASBESTOS. Page 5
Bill Grimes, assistant director at the Herron Art Gallery and an art history instructor for about 7 years at the Herron School of Art. de nsk welder's mask and warms up a brazing torch in his studio at the gallery to work on
a brass sculpture of two children playing Grimes, a Herron graduate, has been commissioned to create the work.
Photo by PAUL SUTTON
Infant health care issues gain officials attention
By DAVE CLARK
Second o f a two-part series W i t h in the last ten years, the Surgeon General of the United States has established a number of health ob
jectives for each state for the year 1990. A majority of states will meet those objectives relating to maternal and child health. Unfortunately, Indiana will not be one
° * ^ e m ' -In d ia n a In fant Mortality Report,
Executive Summary, D ecem ber 1988 The steps necessary to reduce
Indianapolis’ infant mortality rate are not glamorous. Provid
ing free prenatal care to low- income mothers is not likely to grab the attention o f interna
tional businessmen or Olympic athletes. Nor will such measures produce overnight results.
“ Indianapolis is slow to ad
dress some o f the social issues that affect and afflict people in our community," said Mayor William Hudnut, at the Marion County Infant Mortality Forum in February.
Over the past two decades greater concern was placed on the city’s development, to the detrim ent o f some o f its citizens.
In 1968, according to figures published by The Children's Defense Fund, Indianapolis ranked 13th in the country with 31 deaths per 1,000 non-white births.
While the rate has dropped to 24.3 deaths per 1,000 births, In
dianapolis has not kept pace with cities such as Columbus, Ohio, where the infant mortality rate over the same period
dropped by more than h alf from 25.7 in 1968 to 12.5 in 1985.
So while the rate here has been reduced significantly, In
dianapolis has not kept pace with similar sized cities. The result is that Indianapolis now finds itself in first place.
With industrial and com m er
cial growth now setting its own pace, “ It’s time to focus the same energy that built downtown on this issue," said David H. Ar- land, press secretary to Mayor Hudnut, during a telephone in
terview with The Sagamore last week.
“With the revitalization o f our city, now is the time to turn to the human side,” Arland said.
Government movement to ad
dress the problem has been slow. The Nursing Taskforce to
Impact Infant Death and Low Birth Weight Infants in Indiana, formed in the spring of 1987 by then dean o f the IU School of Nursing Dr. Elizabeth Grossman, has spent the past two years studying the problem.
“ I was told (in September 1987) not to bother trying to get anything done because I wasn’t going to get anywhere," said Dr.
Joanne Mnrtin, a member o f the taskforce and a professor at the School o f Nursing. “ But,” she said, “we pushed and things are starting to happen.”
According to a story published Sept. 28, 1987 in The Sagamore, the taskforce’s suggestions on how to reduce the infant mortality rate and low birth weights were originally given to Hudnut on Sept. 15,1987.
Martin said that although In
dianapolis has been slow to recognize the problem, she is pleased that Hudnut and other state politicians.have made this a priority in 1989.
This sense o f priority is not shared by all at the state gov
ernment level, however.
House Bill 1378, sim ilar to one o f the taskforce’s recommenda
tions, would have increased Medicaid eligibility to 185 per
cent o f the federal poverty level.
The bill was voted down.
“ It hit a snag in the (House) Ways and Menns Committee, when the Democratic members voted against it,” said Lou Ann Baker of the House's Media Re
lations office. They wanted to keep the Medicaid eligibility level at the federal poverty level, she added.
It is, however, an expensive position for House representa
tives to take.
The federal poverty level for single persons is $5,745 accord
ing to federal guidelines pub
lished by the Indiana State Board o f Health. In comparison, a person receiving the minimum wage o f $3.35 per hour and working full time will earn about 56,968 per year - before
paying about $325 in state and federal taxes.
Qualifying for Medicaid and Aid for Dependent Children is Cased in part on income. In Indi
ana the present cutoff point is 50 percent o f the federal poverty level or about $2,873 annual in
come.
“There is only one state in the country that haB a lower (Medicaid eligibility) level,"
Martin said, “and that is Ne
vada."
In a Dec. 30, 1988 press release, State Health Com
missioner Woodrow A. Myers stated that, “For every dollar in
vested in prenatal care, between
$4 and $10 is saved in the cost o f providing expensive long-term care for children .leedlessly born too small and too early."
Indiana spends about ‘‘$91 million dollars on care for low birth weight infants every year,' said Dr. 1/oren Petersen, o f Uni
versity Hospital at IUPUI.
In contrast, recommendations presented by the nursing taskforre, the Marion County Board o f Health and the Indian;
State Board o f Health wouli hove cost “about 8 to 10 millioi dollars per year," said Martin.
See TASKFORCE. Page 4
The SAGAMORE M a rc h 27,1989
Quayles honorary co-chairs for scholarship fund
Law-Indianapoli* have agreed to aerve on the committee for the three-year echolarahip fund drive. Chairman o f the committee i* Lante K.
Earnest, who is with the Indianapolis law firm of Klineman Rose W olf & Wnllock
Frandsen died suddenly at his Lebanon home last November. Frandsen joined the law school in 1965 and became associate dean o f student affairs. His honors at the School o f Law include the prestigious Black Cane Award given by stu- dents, and the Distinguished Alumnus Award, given to him in 1983 by the school's alumni a s
sociation.
United States Vice President Dan Quayle and Mrs. Quayle have agreed to be honorary co
chairs o f the G. Kent Frandsen Memorial Scholarship Fund at the IU School o f Law- Indianapolis, where both o f them earned their degrees and were closely associated with Frand
sen, who died last November.
The unrestricted scholarship fund will be ad
ministered by the dean and the faculty student affairs committee at the law school and will be awarded annually to deserving students on the basis o f merit and financial need.
More than 50 lawyers and judges from across the state who graduated from the IU Schos^of
Students can catch up with Indianapolis 500 past
Race funs and Hoosier historians can learn to- Davidson will journey back to 1909, the year gether in “Donald Davidson's Indy 500 History.’* construction was started on the Indianapolis Indianapolis 500 historian Davidson will Speedway, and cover the history and highlights again be running the non-credit course for four o f Indy 500 races.
Wednesdays, April 5-26, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., The enrollm ent fee for the course is $52. En
in the IUPUI Nursing Auditorium , 610 Barnhill rollees can attend with a friend and pay $94 for
Drive. two. For enrollment information, call 274-4364.
Graduates must meet commencement dress code
Before graduation, remember your clothes ...
graduation clothes, that is.
Commencement will be Sunday, M ay 14 at 3 p.m. at the Hoosier Dome. Academic apparel is required for participation in the commencement ceremony. Rental attire is available. As in years past, the Alumni Office is in charge o f all cap and gown rentals.
Cap and gown rental costs, procedures, order forms, and return envelopes were recently sent to all prospective 1989 graduates. Persons who did not receive the m ailing and intend to gradu
ate should check with their school/division re
corder to ensure that all forms for graduation have been appropriately filed. Extra cap and gown order forms are available from school/division recorders and in the Alumni O f
fice on the first floor o f the Union Building.
The schedule for distribution o f caps and gowns is: Bachelor gown only Oast name A-L), Monday, May 1; Bachelor (M-Z), May 2; Doctor gowns only, May 3; Master and Associate, May 4. Distribution hours will be from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day at commencement headquarters, Union Building, on the tunnel level. Signs will be posted.
Commencement invitations will go on sale (first-come, first-served) at the Alumni Office beginning April 10. Invitations will be sold in packages o f six for $2 per package. Tickets are not required for admission to commencement ceremonies.
Questions about cap and gown rental and other commencement related items should be referred to the Alumni Office, 274-8828.
‘ Picture a d a y ’ with a $1 0 0 certificate award
A picture worth a thousand words may be worth a $100 gift certificate in the first “ Picture a Day the United W ay’ photo contest sponsored by United W ay o f Central Indiana.
Students who enter will be matched with one o f 40 participating United Way agencies, con
centrating their photography on people being helped.
Brochures containing complete contest rules and entry forms are available on the campuses o f IUPUI, Butler University, Marion College and the University o f Indianapolis through their Student Affairs or Department o f Journal
ism offices.
Brochures may also be obtained at all Marion County libraries or by calling the Special Events Department o f United W ay at 923-1466.
Entry forms must be returned to United Way o f Centra] Indiana no later than March 31.
First, second and third place winners will receive $100, $50 and $25 gift certificates respectively, courtesy o f Exposures, One Hour Photo Lab and Portraiture Studio.
All photographs must be taken between April 10 and April 14 with finished prints received by United Way no later than May 5,19 89 .
r \ o | ICPA Division II
* 5 ^ NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR
iT > 1 1985,1986,1987
Th« SAGAMORE
Editor In Chief Opinion Editor News Editor Asst News Editor
Dermis Cripe Feature Editor Mick McGrath Leisure Editor Sports Editor Sherry Slater AssL Sports Editor
Dave Clark Photo Editor Jeff DeHerdt Aset Photo Editor
Cindy Varey Business Manager Terri Ctodtelter Scott P. Abel Advertising Manager Grady Gunter Rick Morwick Advertising Adviser Tom Ptake John Keller Design Manager Brian Hendrickson Paul Sutton
Mark Downing_____________________
KJPUI. puMrtrt wMMy 0 tcttool yaw Th» Sagamore a puMcsDan of (is unhertlly. and ooat r
ms vwwt or untoamty m IUPUI cri
•re paid nrougK advarwaig n mary source ol funding supporting In
regular open brum tor tna urwamy communey Read- eWmeM upon raquaal Anonymous la Bart i oTtcial an era inviied id tubmt M a i of any bngtfi and cannoi pa printed. Lenan may ba edad tor n any topic. armoughprararanoawHbaglvan to dartiy and brevity and tie editor wl refect ttton
NOTICES deadline is Thursday at noon.
TODAY
The geology department is sponsoring a talk by Thomas Bruns, deputy director o f the Indianapolis Department o f Natural Re
sources, at 4 p.m. in Cavanaugh 435. The topic will be “Water Policy o f Indiana.* Call Jackie Bates at 274-7484 for m ore information.
TUESDAY
Guest speakers Gordon Smith and John Thom peon front Indiana Bell will give a presentation on Integrated Systems Digital Network and telecommunications for the future at 7:15 p.m. in the 38th Street Administration Building auditorium. The event is sponsored by the Institute o f Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. Call Linda Crothsrs, IEEE preaidant, at 274-9726 for more information.
• e a
The Andros Society welcomes all returning older students to join them for lunch-tim e conversation and fellowship in Cavanaugh 001D from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Bring your own lunch. Call Gene McCormick at 885-1059 for information.
WEDNESDAY
The Anthropology Club invites everyone to join Robert Pickering o f The Children’s Museum and hear his presentation about ’ Arche
ology on the South Sea Island o f Yap* fi-om 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
in Cavanaugh 411. Call Rick Ward at 274-8207 for details, s e e
A homosexual couple will share with the University Gay/Lesbian Alliance the personal experiences o f their lives together. A group discussion will follow. The m eeting will be at 3754 N. Illinois St.
(opposite McDonald's).
THURSDAY
The University W riting Center is having a ’ Documentation*
workshop in Cavanaugh 427 from 11 a.m. to noon.
a s *
Washington University's Hyman Minsky, author o f “Can it Happen Again (The Great Depression),’ will present *Is the Great Depression Happening Again?* at 4 p.m. in Cavanaugh 219. The talk is sponsored by the Economics Club. Contact Bob Sandy in C ava
naugh 517 for details.
a e a
A mandatory meeting for Student Government candidates is scheduled for 8 a.m. in the basement o f U niversity Library. Call Karen Marks at 274-3931 for more information.
FRIDAY
TTie Geography Club is sponsoring an international dinner at 6:30 p.m. in Cavanaugh 507. All faculty, students and friends are invited. Admission is one international dish. Drinks and paper products are being provided.
• e a
The Muslim Students Association o f IUPUI will meet at 5:30 p.m.
in Mary Cable 110. Plans for Ramadan and an agenda for new members will be discussed. Refreshments will be provided. All new Muslim students are invited to attend.
ADDENDA
The elections for president and vice president o f the Black Student Union will be Monday, April 3 in the main entrance o f the University Library from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Applications are available in the BSU office, University Library 0 06D and must be submitted no later than Thursday at 5 p.m . For more information, contact Kevin Long or Priscella Stewart a
RESUMES BUSINESS CARDS WEDDINC INVITATIONS GRADUATION ANNOUNCEMENTS/NAME CARDS
typesettin g-layout-prin ting a ll d o n e in house, w ith great a tte n tio n to d e ta il
™ m m t m m h im m o v
68 South Girls School Road • Indianapolis, Indiana
271-S1I0S
_________ _______________NEWS
H elp could be phone call away by fall semester
B y M IC K M oC K A T H Preliminary . . _ begin this week on a plan to in stall 10 emergency call bases in parking lota on the Michigan Street campus.
If everything goes according to plan, said IUPUI Police Chief John Mulvey, the call bases should be in place by the start o f the foil semester.
Tentative plans call for Park
ing Services to pay for the in stallation, Telecommunications Services to pay for the line charges and the police depart
ment to incorporate the costs o f the dispatcher into iU budget.
The source o f funding for the cost o f the equipm ent has not been determined yet, but M ul
vey said the uncertainty would not stall the project.
“W e will pay for it one way or another,” M ulvey said.
The equipm ent and instaJla-
“ PProximately
$16,000. The costa include a yel- low weatherproof bos and rain- farced cable to prevent weather damage and vandalism.
Installation is expected to be
gin in about three montha. sa,d Mulvey.
■ » c s a s s r . ,s i
vey said.
An emergency call bos, on loan to the university, Was inT J ^
Blackford £ 2 r inB? & 2 - removed after the f t T slevatod
Game, in August 1M7 *"* V1 ... _ Ul
“One nmhUn, iT rJ , Propet, chairman o f the Public bos was that thT*^ ' ^ r*t Safety Committee that put to-
not visible from w** gather the proposal for the call nnseu to tne ponce oispauner P»WnglotrL!i KlnU(inthe *»*••. “ W the boses will help meaning call, off campus will Larry Propet of rkT*puty the police as well as people with not be possible.
--- ^ 01 ^ campus po- car double. --- '•
“It will help for people who see
•thing suspicious but don’t have im mediate access to a phone,” Propst said.
The phones will be directly linked to the police dispatcher
Locations o f the call boses and
o f the Psychiatric Research Building.
— Lot 20; centrally located in the lot. The Safety Committee opted for a cellular phone in this lot because the cost of cutting a trench through the center of the lot for phone lines was consider
ed too expensive
— Lot 69; in the southeast from the Track and Field Stadium
— Lot 68, in the southeast corner at Patterson and New York streets
— Lot 86; northeast of the old Purchasing Building at 830 W New York St
— Lot 83; on the east side of the Counseling Center.
— At the southeast com er o f Vermont and Blackford streets an the north side o f the Mary Cable Building, serves lots 72, 73 and 92
— At the southwest com er o f Douglas and North streets;
serves the East Garage and lota 69, 70 and 71
— On the east side o f the old Power Plant Building; serves L ot8 .
— On the east side o f the Bowers Building, which houses the campus police; serves Lot 75, pedestnan traffic from Lot 80 to University Hospital and the Cavanaugh Hall area.
____________________ — \ *
you . are cordially in vited
U, a tte n d the J x f t u n t k A n n u a l S tu d e n t A c tiv itie s
honors 'Banquet
‘When: A p r il 18,1989
•Where: Jioositr ‘Kpom,
Student U n i o n <Buitding
T im e : 6 : 3 0 p.TTL
iMistrui & Master of Ceremonies:
Q ltn d a 5 m it/i a n d 0(p6ert J o n g Students: $4.00; Jacufty, Staff and Administration $7.00
Tickets available at the Student Activities Office, LJ0CU, untU noon Jnday, April 14.
- - d ' Mjk , *s - v
W o r k i n g w i t h
D i f f e r e n c e s
T o p i c :
"Working With lliffrrrol Prrtonjliliet"
5p*alh<»ir:
Fr. Knlin Belilr (L'ftChQJ'ftw:
■S 4OT5
iHltll luridly, Mirth 2S, 1<
T f i w n : 7:00 PM
OU are planning to attend, or for further information.
cooler t IUPVI Student ActirMn at 77*19,1 __________ - Seating h limited - ______________
Page 4 / NEWS
bM n that Mediccud, the ax-
Taskforce
Continued from Page 1 In broad term* then, the recommendation to increase Medicaid eligibility and, had it passed, HB1378, could save In
diana taxpayers more than 132 million each year, according to the projections given in Myer’s statement.
The national bill for such chil
dren is about $2.5 billion per year, according to Dr. Petersen.
In a similar vein, a study con
ducted by the Sunbeam Ap
pliance. Corporation found that their insurance coeta 'decreased 83 percent' after the introduc
tion o f a free prenatal education program for employees.
A Senate based bill, SB449, in
troduced by state Sen. Virginia Blankenbaker (R-Indianapolis) is similar to the House bill that failed. Blankenbaker’s bill, which has passed through the Senate, would “provide Medicaid eligibility to 150 percent o f the federal poverty level," Baker said.
If SB449 does not pass the House, low income women
"m ight have to choose between eating a balanced diet and paying for a medical exam ina
tion,’ Martin said, a no-win situation.
Passage o f SB449, if it hap
pens, will not guarantee any reduction in infant mortality rates, or low birth weight associ
ated with infant disabilities.
The national experience has
peeled safety net for low-income families, is sometim es in
adequate for prenatal care. For a variety o f reasons low-income mothers sometimes a n not able to make use o f it. Some, for ex
ample, lack transportation to and from the doctor’s office.
Others a n often unaware o f ser
vices that they m ight quality for.
For women who know about programs such as Medicaid's Aid for Dependent Children, the time it takes from applying for benefits to receiving them can become a problem.
"Once a woman applies, it can take from 30 to 45. days before she qualifies for Medicaid," said Becky Black, M ahon Country case worker supervisor for Aid for Dependent C nildnn.
Despite the bleak outlook, the City-County and state govern
ments have begun to look at the problem. Model programs such as The Hartford Action Plan, presented during February’s conference, and sim ilar plans used by other states are being looked at. The city o f Columbus, Ohio uses what it calls a “Mom- mobile" to bring Medicaid eligible women to clinics and hospitals for prenatal care.
Here in Indianapolis, the Indi
ana March o f Dim es soon hopes to have its own version, the Mobile Health Care U n it
In the past, Martin said, one o f the problems has been that the available aid has been scattered among various groups.
•The Indiana State Board o f
H ow to start your law career before y o u start
law school.
Start with the Kaplan LSAT prep course.
After taking Kaplan, thousands o f LSAT students score over 4Q That's the top 10% nation
wide! And candidates w ho score over 40 on the LSAT enjoy the best chance o f being accepted to the law school o f their choice and going on to practice with too law firms or corporations.
So call any o f our 120 centers for information and class starting dates. The Kaplan LSAT prep course could be the one pre law course that determines the oourse o f your law career.
IKAPLAN
STANLEY H. I Aft AN EDUCATIONAL CBTH LTD.
DON’T COMPETE WITH A KAPLAN STUDENT-BE ONE
CLASS BEGINS 4/4/89 for 6/89 Exam KAPLAN EDUCATIONAL CENTER
5060 E. 62nd ST. #122 HAWTHORN PLAZA INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46250
317/251-3910
The SAGAMORE_____________________________________ March 27,1989 Marion County Task Force Report
on Infant Mortality Initiatives
1. Remove financial barriers to health care by increasing eNgibtity to Metfcaid funded care 2 Increase the current perinatal system capacity by adding four new health care dnics in: The Meadows area; the Citizens Muliservtce Center Catchment area; the Barrington Neighborhood; and Downtown for all areas in need.
3 Improve institutional policies and organizational practices to promote more comprehensive and coordinated perinatal services.
4„ Enhance the identification and education of women in need of prenatal care.
5 Actively involve other sectors of the community to improve prenatal care.
6 Implement community based care coordination for comprehensive prenatal care 7 Establish a monitoring and oversight process to ensure that the task force recommendations are implemented in a timely manner.
Health has given (University Hospital) a $770,000 grant to act ax a coordinating cantor for
•ome o f th# taskforce proposal*."
At the stats laval, a program called the "Hoosier Infant Initia
tive" offered a number of broad- based recommendations to coor
dinate services from a number o f sources. Th* initiative would be
"a statewide campaign in
corporating expanded prenatal care, improved infant nutrition ... mobile health car* to reach rural areas and increased Medicaid coverage for pregnant Hoosiers." The Marion County Board o f Health has also recent
ly agreed on seven recommenda
tions specifically for the county.
(See box).________________________
The same conditions that con
tribute to infant mortality also create a ripple effect through the community.
Low birth weight babies, for the most part minorities, are often physically handicapped.
Unable to keep pace with their peers, they will be dependent on social aid for th* majority of their lives.
Low birth weight babies are also often developmentally handicapped. Again, unable to keep up with the education pace set by schools, they will represent th* majority o f early school leavers. Unprepared for high school, they ore unlikely candidates for college level in- struction. Low skill, minimum
wage income job* will act to lock them into a life o f poverty. Fur
ther, their children will face the same threat that lack o f prena
tal care presents. To break out o f that cycle will become in
creasingly hard.
Until some broad baaed com munity action is taken, the pain o f infant mortality will continue at its current pace. In Indiana, about 79,000 children will be born in 1989. O f those, th* lack o f adequate health cars will result in the death o f some 7,800 before they reach their first birthday.
Anna Wolfe provided research for thit article.
RESERVE OFF I CERS ’ TRAI NI NG CORP S
YOUR FIRST STEP TOWARD SUCCESS IS THE ONE YOU COULD HIKE THIS SUMMER.
At Army ROTC Camp Challenge, you'll loam what X takes to s u cce e d -in college and m hie You'D build self-con&dence and develop your leadership potential. Plus you can also qualify to earn an Army Officer*
commission when you graduate Army ROTC Camp Challenge, h may be just what you need to reach the top.
Dept, at 630 W. New York St. (across the street from the Law School.)
M arch 2 7 .19H9 The SAGAMORE N K W S / P a g e 5
Asbestos
Continued from Pag* 1 taining asbestos, they contact th* Department o f Environmen
tal Health and Safety, whoae as bee toe abatement and removal department,. headed by Daniel Moriarity, then Ukea charge.
Although federal regulations may serve as a guideline for routine inspection, they don't apply directly.
“The university is beyond the scope o f federal law," said La veil Merritt, asbestos programs as
sistant farDivision 5 (which in cludes Indiana).
"Buildings under laws requir
ing inspection are usually kin
dergarten and first through 12th grade buildings," said Merritt.
Merritt added that if there is work done on buildings that dis
turb* the asbestos, and is proven to disturb asbestos, it is the university’s responsibility to provide clean up.
There are federal laws being considered now, said Merritt, that may extend the clean-up policy that affects grade schools to institutions such as state col
leges and hospitals A recent letter to the editor printed in The Sagamore ex
pressing concern over asbestos present in the Mary Cable Building and the discovery o f a leaking pipe insulated with as
bestos in the Herron School o f Art have once again raised the
question o f i and the danger it pose*
According to Strong there are many buildings on campus that could contain asbestos.
‘ All the older buildings built before 1975 will generally have asbestos," said Strong
Included in that group are Cavanaugh Hall, th* University Library, th* Lecture Hall, the School o f Law building, the Her
ron School o f Art buildings, Ball Residence, th* Mary Cable Building, th* Medical Science Building and th* School of Dentistry building.
Strong wont on to say there are plana to remove asbestos from some o f the underground tunnel systems across th*
campus and other small areas in early summer.________________ ___
PREGNANT?
I • PREGNANCY TERMINATION
" TO 12 WEEKS
I • BOARD CERTIFIED GYNECOLOGISTS I _ Call Toll Free 1-600*92-3424
LOCAL (317) 241-0215___
AFflliATCD WOMCNS SERVICES, INC
AT&T
The right choice.
The tunnels are used as path
ways to shuttle patients back and forth between hospitals, to store hospital equipment and sometimes as an indoor track for joggers during inclement weather.
A web of pipes stretch through the tunnels, many insulated by asbestos, which, when intact, is harmless.
However when th* protective wrapping covering the asbestos is disturbed or asbestos fibers are exposed to open air its presence becomes a hazard.
Exposure to airborne asbestos fibers can cause lung and other types o f cancer and may lead to asbestoeis, an emphysema-like disease.
Persons exposed to asbestos often play a waiting gamp. It
takes 20 to 30 years for some signs o f disease to show.
There are many types of as
bestos o f which th* heat resistant, insulating chryaotile or white asbestos is most com mon. Those types that are fri
able (easily crushed into fibers by handling) have the most potential to become a hazard.
Non-friable asbestos, found in such materials as floor tiles, is th* least dangerous.
Th* presence o f asbestos on campus has led IUPUI into two head to head confrontations with labor organizations.
in 1982, renovation o f the Union Building resulted in the disturbance o f asbestos and m used some o f the university faculty to worry. Their concern
sparked a disagreement be
tween th* American Federation of Teachers Loral 3950 at IUPUI and University Physical Facilities.
In May of 1988, Indiana Bell Worker* installing rabies for a new $6 5 million phone system on IUPUI claim ed they had been exposed to flaking asbestos, and began a lawsuit in August 1987 in which the Communication Workers o f America Local 4900 named the Indiana University Board o f Trustees as one of the defendants.
Th* suit was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount in March 1988 Settled "without prejudice," plaintiffs could refit*
the same suit again at a future time.
66No matter how bad they are, Grandma loves to hear the latest jokes.}}
Vi hi mtv* tier sjiarkling sniM.nl humor Mr- missi s y hijikI w Hir kJvcs Even the kaliHK-s Thaisinr- hr] iv.isimi li > call l« hir distance A1 M l.i Mir I litfance Service isaiiiiilR-rRtNKlreason Be latisc it costs less than you think to hear tour jpuml inotlR-r start to giggle be l< He u hi even gel to the
|HHRIt line n i uhen eu ru hi miss Ir-i lauRhter. bring a sntik- tuhefuteewith \i m Reach out and touch someone' II until like to know more alii ml V IM priRltu Isanti services, like the A T M Card, i all us at 18m 2 ” ii.*M)
O P IN IO N
< « * < /
University needs free exchange of ideas
T o the E ditor:
I rend with interest the article in Inst week’s Sagamore carry
ing the headline “Groups unite for march."
The story reported on a recent meeting on the IUPU1 campus in which the lenders of several pro-abortion groups spoke to students regarding the upcom
ing march on Washington against any repenl or modifica
tion of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abor
tion.
That’s all well and good.
IUPUi is a public institution and ns such the campus should be a place at which people ore free to organize and express their opinions on a variety of political issues.
A free interchange of ideas is a sign o f not only an active and vigorous university environ
ment, but of a healthy demo
cratic society ns well.
What did concern me, how
ever, was the fact thnt one of the sponsors o f the meeting was (ac
cording to the article) the IUPUI Department of Women’s Studies.
Letters to the
C S d l t o r
As an associate member of the faculty at IUPUI, I do not be
lieve it is the role of a university department to be involved in sponsoring meetings aimed not at a balanced presentation o f all views on an issue, but at promoting a particular political viewpoint to the exclusion o f an
other.
From the reading of the arti
cle, it is clear that the purpose of the meeting was to organize a protest against a possible rever
sal of/foe.
However noble one may think this cause to be, for the Depart
ment of Women’s Studies to sponsor such an event (and in effect using tuition fees and tax dollars to do so) is to violate the notion that a university should exist to promote the free inter
change o f ideas.
The university’s learning en
vironment exists so students are
free to share their opinions, un
derstand (and tolerate) those contrary to their own, and, hope
fully learn a little bit in the pro
cess.
The pro-abortion meeting sponsored by the Women’s De- partment was not aimed at a meaningful discussion of the is
sues by a presentation of both sides of this controversial sub
ject.
Rather the meeting was to pro
mote a particular political view
point at the exclusion o f anoth
er. That doesn't advance the learning environment; it stifles it.
And students and those who treasure the free exchange of ideas at our school are the worse off for it.
Paul K. O gden P olitical S cien ce
E d itor’s N ote: According to a spokesperson for the Department o f Women • Studies, sponsoring the meeting consisted mainly o f securing a meeting room. No tui
tion, tax or other money was
•pent on the event by the depart
ment.
Ill Foundation acts as Cable absentee landlord
Y
ou h a w lust •m « r*d th tT to U g N Zone. D o -do-d^do , dodo-do-do Consider I you wfll, you w a it into a rundown buttdino w here floor tie s disintegrate under the heats of your shoes, rodents and insects m ake their home and the lack of vacillation m akes rooms insufferably hot year round.
This is the M ary C able Building. It w as purchased some five years ago by the IU Foundation, a private not tor-profit organization, at the request of IU P U I officials.
IU P U I pays rent, or basically the m ortgage paym ents, to use the buildings for office and instruction space.
Plans are underway to purchase the building as soon as the funds are appropriated from the Indiana G eneral Assembly or are secured from an alternate source, an option adm inistra
tors are exploring, said Eugene Tem pel, IU P U I vice chancel- tor for external affairs and IU Foundation vice president.
According to Tem pel, the university cannot use Its R epair and Rehabilitation fund to m ake im provem ents on a building it does not own.
It Is also not the place
c*
the Foundation, which is "holding the buildinglor
the university," to pay for im provements, Tem pel said. The dilapidated M ary C able Building has fallen into a no-m an’s land where no one win take responstoUlty.This Is a classic exam ple of a good plan gone bad. W hat m ay m ake financial sense does not m ake social sense. It is m orally wrong to expect students, faculty and staff to work in such substandard conditions. The IU Foundation is playing the role of the absentee landlord.
IU P U I adm inistrators are concerned about the condition of the building, and cite Its im provem ent as a priority for the cam pus. They are also in the position to exert some pressure on the Foundation.
If the building w ere renovated In consultation with IU P U I adm inistrators, the resulting im provements would add to the asking price. The Foundation w o uldn l lose any m oney. They would be providing a decent atm osphere for work and study.
W e re takin g about standard floor tile, ventilation and pest control, not plush carpet and whirlpool baths.
W hile university adm inistrators m ay eventually decide to dem olish the building in favor of new construction, reportedly no such decision has been m ade at this tim e. Action needs to
\b e taken now, regardless of what m ay or m ay not happen to the building in 10 years.
The Twilight Zone is a nasty place to work and study.
—The Editorial Board C a m p u s I n q u i r y What problems have you had in the Mary Cable Building?
KF.I.LY RIMER Freshman
University Division
HANK DAVIS
Administrative Secretary Theatre D ep artm ent
JENNIFER WILSON Freshman
U niversity Division
RAMONA CATHCART Freshman
U niversity Division
MARK DAVIS Freshman Guided Study
"W e get stuff, dirt, all over everything when we sit on the floor. It’s too dirty."
“The bathrooms ore pretty notorious. The floors are disin
tegrating. And there’s too many people trying to use the same building. When you look at Mary Cable, you get an idea of what the university’s priori
ties are." ,
"I really haven’t had any prob
lems, but the canteen is way too hot, and I think (Mary Cable) is in really bad condi
tion - the floors and the tile."
“In the classrooms the floors are really dirty. If you put stuff on the floors, it gets all torn up.
The parking lot is like clay, and it’s always wet. And stuff gets all over your clothes."
“I think sometimes it gets too warm. When it’s hot, it gets too hot in there."
March 27,1989
The SAGAMORE
OPINION / Page 7Fire up the Hoover: Let’s vacuum some lettuce
Am the saying goes, truth i t stranger than fiction.
Last week I read a story in USA Today about the recent outbreak o f concern over pesticides used on fruits and vegetables.
It seems that while American farmers are banned from using certain sub
stances, farmers overseas are not. And at this time o f year, many o f our produce comes from countries more favored by warm weather.
It all sounded reasonable, and I wouldn’t have questioned the sanity o f any o f it, until I read the last line of the article which was tagged on so innocent
ly that you'd think it wasn't the least bit significant.
It said that beginning the next day, a new lettuce was being sold in San Fran cisco, New York City and St. Louis, Mo.
It isn’t a new type of lettuce, it is lettuce tended according to a new concept: It was vacuumed daily.
Oh, I couldn’t believe it either. Vacu
umed. Now, is it just me, or are you right now visualising thousands o f migrant workers with Eureka uprights going up and down the rows o f a lettuce field suck
ing Bugs off the leaves?
Too outrageous, you say? Would cord
less Dustbusters be more sensible? I see a field fiill o f wide-brimmed-hat-wearing workers carefully rubbing their car vacs over the tender, green plants.
And assuming they do this daily, even if migrant workers aren't paid Recent wages, hoW much could this run up?
What is tne field-life o f lettuce? Two months? Three? Four? What about the cost o f purchasing all these vacuums?
That’s quite an investment for already struggling farmers. Should we expect to see $26 heads of lettuce, coming soon to stores near us?
For that matter, should we accept the idea o f having bugs on our lettuce for as long
A Clean Slate
S h e r r y S la te r
migrant workers are happy to have jobs, so let them work. Let them each pick out their own individual lettuce and guard it, flicking off the nasty little six-legged pests with their fingers.
Without the use of high-tech equip
ment like vacuums,.farmers could still keep the cost down to about 99 ^ents for a head o f the green stuff,
a Maybe they^on’t operate the vacuums
* in the fields at all. Ma>
she had mistakenly packed grapes in her lunch box.
The absurdity in this situation is stag
gering.
While we are.calling out the armed professionals to careen through our cities endangering motorists and pedestrians alike to swipe potentially dangerous fruit from lunch boxes, 20,000 workers in Chile are out of jobs. Some 200,000 more workers are in danger of losing their jobs as well.
The Food and Drug Administration de-
the "pure," untainted fruits o f Mother Nature's bosom would be the next to fall into disgrace. For years, science fiction fans have envisioned a future when hu
mans would eat nothing more than a pill for breakfast, a pill for lunch, and anoth
er for dinner.
That day may be coming sooner than wes^ave previously .predicted. People are becoming frightened and confused about what they con and cannot eat. If the food doesn't kill them, the anxiety might.
If there is proof that a pesticide is caus- cided to impound 2 million crates of ing disease, famine and widespread
lettuce in big
oybe they grow the warehouses that they evacuate daily right before turning on the huge overhead “sucker.” Everything is automated these days, after all.
If this system works for lettuce, what’s next? Cabbage, purple cabbage and spinach? The next question is how to keep underground bugs out o f our carrots and potatoes and how to get our mini- vacs into fruit trees.
I understand the concern of mothers and others who object to the use of dead
ly pesticides on fruits arid vegetables.
(Who wouldn’t sympathize with their point of view after super-actress Meryl Streep joined their ranks?)
That concern, however, has reached panic proportions in the wake of safety questions. According to Time, Oregon state police ^ r e involved in a high
speed chase to overtake a school bus which sat a child whose mother realized
Chilean fruit and advise consumers not to buy the imported peaches, blueberries, blackberries, melons, green apples, pears and plums from the South American coun ty.
All this chaos for two gropes without enough cyanide in them to give a toddler a tummy ache. FDA authorities appar
ently did not include the small amount of evidence found, the possibility of con
sumers carefully examining purchases and the devastating effects such a ban could have on the Chilean economy in their decision-making formula.
Workers in Chile have demonstrated against the American, and consequently Canadian and Japanese, ban on their fruit imports at the American embassy in Santiago.
Even State.Deportment authorities, ac
cording to Time, privately “acknowledged the FDA may have overreacted.”
You know, it just figures that with all the warnings we’ve heard qbout red meat, fat, caffeine and cholesterol, that
death, we should do something about it, no question. Huge corporations cannot be allowed to exploit consumers iTi order to line their own pockets with extra profits.
But all this panic is just carrying it a bit too far.
I do have one small, insignificant sug
gestion I’d like to tag on at the end of this column, however. We have to realize that we are all going to die sometime, and I, for one, don’t particularly care if it’s from unvacuumed lettuce or a plane crash. Dead is dead, and you can’t suck every potential danger out of life. '
g as 24 hours? I think not. Those
Afr'
k.1
4 m ... d m ^
Self-help commercials tend to stretch truth, details
A friend of mine who worked at a book
store told me the best-selling books (at least B.S.R. — Before Salman Rushdie) at his location were self-help books. But reading about self-improvement can’t be near as fascinating as watching it. v
I’m talking about those 30-minute com
mercials, the oasis in television’s waste
land where you can learn hoW to get bet
ter grades, lose weight, tap the powers of your subconscious, lose wrinkles or even get rich on a $1 investment. On those rare times when you’re not honing your you-ness or getting rich, you can pick up pointers on how to freeze-dry food and buy a neat-o knife to cut it up. *
This genre was formerly the niche of Lyndon LaRouche and Herbalife, and you see how well it worked for these now non-public entities. Regardless, others have realized Sunday night television time only costs 50 cents a minute, so they buy big chunks and give the pro
grams names like “How to Win the War on Wrinkles.”
These folks obviously realize they have to lure us into watching this new version of “art." If they gave • us a half-hour of dancing raisins with foam rubber lips mouthing bad versions of classic Motown songs, we probably wouldn’t watch.
Come to think of it, maybe w<| would.
Give them all little microphones, put them on ice skates ....
But I digress. Thirty minutes of “Gives your floor a shine without that nefarious
him money to make you sure you feel
Bob C ook
Tniswax buildup” won’t do. The shows must be info-tainment, with a money-back guarantee to match.
And, oh, can you learn! In one docu- tisement, I learned a child hears a derivative of the word “no" about 40,000 times before age 12, and 95 percent of all people live with the nagging, but often comforting, thought, “I’m a failure."
To assure that these statistics are not made up, the host rites “doctors” and
“researchers" whose parents for some reason neglected to name them at bii^th.
These “people” apparently know research techniques we mere mortals could never figure out, like who counts every “no” ut
tered to a child.
About 20 minutes into the adver- mentary, the host, finally identified as the president of the company, and not a failed game show host, although that would seem to be the case, enlignlens the vieweris) about how to answer the Most Important Question In The World he’s asked about 50 bazillion times. All it takes is $39.95 for a set of cassettes, no checks, please*.
Isn’t that nice? He’s so concerned about your happiness he’s allowing you to send
his PBS-esque technique also is used in a personal favorite, the innocuously- named “Cable Kitchen,” the hearty ad
ventures of a Grizzly Adams clone.
He’d spend the day climbing Mt.
McKinley three or four times, then return' to his well-insulated log cabin, where he would spend his time freeze
drying broccoli.
Or, if he was going for the big sale, he’d go to a friend’s house. The two rustic buddies would engage in small talk, but the visitor always noticed his friend spent his spare time freeze-drying food, too.
So the visitor would say, “Hay! I notice you’re freeze-drying food! How do you do that so efficiently and economically?"
And the friend w«i1d say something like,
“Well, I’m glad y<m asked that. It just so happens I have a 20-minute spiel prepared on the low-priced pleasure of stuffing beets into air-tight packaging.”
But be warned, self-help seekers, the longer commercials, like their shorter si
blings, tend to, you know, stretch the truth a little, not mention a few minor details.
For example, one highly informative and mentally stimulating piece shows numerous people talking about how much better their lives have been since losing 475 pounds on a diet explained on a cassette (NOTE: “researchers” have
found 95 percent of everything ad
vertised on long ads is c on ta in ed ^ ! a cassette).
But a plucky viewer can figure out that it’s more than weight loss that turned a select few into gods and goddesses of erotica. Comparing “before” and “after”
photos, it looks like a satisfied customer also had a makeover, new clothes, new hairstyle, hair electrolysis treatments and a new technique to control drooling.
Some of these commercials try to be so- uncommercial-like that they haoe com
mercial* within the commercial. For ex
ample, John Ritter, in rthe most in
telligent role of his career, is doing his Oprah imitation, interviewing students about how they learned how to get good grades with less effort thanks to a $70 cassette (is Sony financing all of these products?).
Suddenly, he turns to the camera, says,
“W ell be right back,” and a one-minute commercial starts for the name damn product they’ve Ix'en trying to Hell all along. Apparently, the producers realize even those seeking self-help need to grnb some potato chips or go to the bathroom occasionally.
Boh Cook's guest column has become a recurring nightmare that appears every fortnight. Boh will spend the next tut) weeks listening to all the cassettes he or
dered, then return with another chapter o f his memoirs.
