NEWS BRIEF
KWVA receives allocation
to update equipment
The ASUO Student Senate ap
proved a huge request from the
campus radio station KWVA at a
two-hour senate meeting Wednes
day night.
The $31,794 allocation accounts
for nearly a third of the surplus
funds the senate had available to
spend for the entire year.
KWVA General Manager Charlotte
Nisser said the station needs the mon
ey to complete a major changeover
from analog to digital radio equip
ment. The upgrade will provide a
"state-of-the-art learning environ
ment for students, * Nisser said.
"These are essential items," she said.
Nisser and several senators said
they were frustrated with the
progress of the project, for which the
senate allocated $118,438 last May.
"Your group has really put the
senate between a rock and a hard
place," Sen. Jesse Harding said,
adding that KWVA has done a "very
poor job" of managing the
$118,438 already granted.
He also expressed frustration that
KWVA spent money on items other
than what the senate approved the
funds for, adding that the station
had taken on "vigilante status."
Senators subjected Nisser to more
than an hour of tough questioning,
but decided they felt obligated to
see the project through. Without the
additional funding, the station
would have been left with a partially
completed renovation and a diffi
cult operating environment.
"I feel like our hands are kind of
tied here," Senate Treasurer Kevin
Curtin said. "If we don't give you
that $31,000, our money is wasted."
The allocation leaves the senate
with only $46,718 for the rest of the
year, and the senate is expecting a re
quest for several thousand dollars lat
er this term from Campus Recycling.
"We (will) be that much more
careful about giving out money,"
Senate President Ben Strawn said.
— Chuck Slothower
EMU
continued from page 1
bottom floor.
"The application process is wide
open right now," EMU Interim Plan
ning Committee Chairman Brandon
Rhodes said.
The Craft Center, Women's Center
and University Health Center have all
made inquiries about the 1,100-1,200
square-foot office space
However, the committee said it has
not established a deadline for submitting
applications, so other groups interested
in the space can still apply.
The Craft Center submitted a pro
posal describing how it would use the
space, envisioning a new area for glass
blowing and general programming, a
reoriented and expanded wood shop
and a relocated fibers studio.
Women's Center Assistant Director
Debby Martin said the group wants
the empty office because it is larger
and would offer a more private space
to help women who drop in to report
violence against them.
"We need more space to deal with
those situations," Martin said, adding
that the center is trying to create a
"community space" for women to
come and relax or bring their chil
dren, and another area for women to
breast-feed.
Discussions with the health center
are in a very preliminary stage, Rhodes
said, but there has been talk of putting a
cold clinic or a pharmacy in the EMU.
"I think they would jump at the
chance to get some office space some
where," Rhodes said.
He added that it's unlikely any one
group will get the whole room to itself.
"Realistically, it's likely we'll see a mul
tifaceted resolutioa" Rhodes said. "We'd
like to accommodate a range of needs."
The committee is taking a broad
look at how to best use the office
space in the EMU, including the spot
on the second floor recently vacated
by Totally Cellular.
The committee is also looking at
giving 11 EMU to Erb Essentials for
management and clerical space.
Rhodes said the shuffle would free
up space for the EMU's convenience
store to sell more goods. However,
the committee would have to find
somewhere to put the current occu
pants of room 11, Amnesty Interna
tional and Students for Choice.
After finalizing a plan for the use of
EMU offices, the committee will solic
it public comments. The committee
plans to present its findings to the
EMU Board of Directors in April.
"We'd like to have (any changes)
constructed and ready by the first day
fall term," Rhodes said.
Contact the campus/
federal politics reporter
at chuckslothower@dailyemerald.com.
ODDS
continued from page 1
currently sitting in on.
"She's got a lot on her plate right
now," he said. "I admire her determi
nation and her being able to be very
goal-directed. She doesn't let her chal
lenges defeat her in any way."
But Heider said she is getting
depressed.
"I've tried to stay optimistic, but at
this point I don't know what else
would work," she said. "I've had hur
dles to jump over while I've been try
ing to do these incompletes. I've got
ten depressed. I've gotten
discouraged."
Heider said she'd like to graduate,
get a job and become financially sta
ble so she doesn't ever have to be
homeless again. She'd like to find
work, and at the same time, she'd like
to give back to the community by
making a donation to the University
as a sign of her school spirit.
But when, or if, that will ever hap
pen, she doesn't know.
In need of surgery
Heider waited impatiently in the
emergency department of McKenzie
Willamette Medical Center on the
evening of Feb. 10. The headaches and
body pains had gotten too bad to ig
nore any longer, she said. She had to
have another spinal tap.
Heider saw her first nurse, who took
her blood pressure and determined
that it was high. The nurse then asked
her to rate her headache on a scale of
one to 10. Heider said eight.
Then, Heider went into a cubicle in
the lobby to register. After about 10
minutes, she came out and sat in one
of the waiting chairs. She was crying,
dreading the pain of the spinal tap,
she said.
Heider went into the emergency
room for treatment, but the doctors
turned her away, saying she had re
ceived too many spinal taps and really
needed surgery to revise her shunt,
she said.
She agreed, but asked for a spinal
tap anyway.
They still said no, Heider said.
Tom Hambly, clinical manager of
emergency services for McKenzie
Willamette Medical Center, said the
hospital refuses service to nobody, but
that a physician may have decided it
wasn't appropriate or safe to perform
a spinal tap at the time.
"I'm alarmed that she's had 90 spinal
taps," Hambly said. "And I can under
stand why a physician wouldn't want to
do 91. Spinal taps carry with them their
own inherent risks, and you have to
weight the risks compared to the ad
vantages of any given procedure."
Right now the pressure of cerebral
spinal fluid in Heider's head is build
ing. She started noticing it in Septem
ber, and since then it's gotten worse.
A letter from Dr. Mark Belza — her
neurosurgeon in Bend — said Heider
has suffered from chronic nausea, ear
and eye pain and difficulty balancing
since then.
In the past six months, Heider has
been to the emergency room nine
times for emergency spinal taps, she
said. Each time they stick the needle
in, they run the risk of hitting her
spinal cord, which could paralyze or
kill her.
"I'm left with no care," Heider said.
"I have a spinal tap about once every
two weeks and I subject myself to in
fection, paralysis or death each time
the needle goes in."
Heider needs a shunt revision, ac
cording to the letter from Belza's office
Her shunt — which continually
drains fluid out of her back by di
verting it into her urine system — is
not functioning because it is
plugged, she said. Her vision is get
ting worse, her ears are aching and
her body is swollen.
"This is like a pressure cooker," she
said. "I feel puffy like the Pillsbury
Doughboy."
Heider can't have surgery in Eu
gene. There are nine neurosurgeons in
the city, but all of them are booked
and none will consider her case be
cause her Oregon Health Plan cover
age will only pay 75 percent of what it
normally pays, Heider said.
She said the Governor's Advocacy
Office is investigating her case.
Heider can't go to Bend to have
Belza perform the surgery, either.
In the letter, Belza wrote that the
best course of action would be to
have a surgeon in Eugene take her
case. The risk of her driving over the
mountains after a surgery would be
too great, he wrote.
Besides, Heider said she's tired of
bouncing back and forth like a tennis
ball. She is resolute that one of the lo
cal surgeons here should take her case.
"It's got to work," she said. "It's just
something that's got to work."
Heider said sometimes it's hard for
her to accept the battle she's fighting,
hard to accept her chronic sickness.
"I hate to say that I'm not going to
get better," she said. "But there's not a
cure for the tumor. There's not a cure
for the asthma. It's chronic. So, we just
try to deal with it as best as we can....
I can't believe it's happening to me.
It's like you would read about it in the
newspaper about another student,
but it's me."
Contact the people/culture/
faith reporter
atjaredpaben@dailyemerald.com.
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