132 YEARS IN PRINT VOL. CXXXI ISSUE L
THE NEWS RECORD MONDAY | MAY 7 | 2012
SPRING CONCERT ‘BIG’ IMPROVEMENT
entertainment | 3
sports | 6
RACING
FOR ROSES
New UHS billing policy ‘win-win’ BEN GOLDSCHMIDT | SENIOR REPORTER University Health Services is making an important change in its billing policy, requiring students without university health insurance to pay a flat rate of $75 for most visits. After the payment is made, students can seek reimbursement from their health insurance provider. If a student cannot pay with cash, check or credit, Health Services can add the amount to his or her tuition bill. While this new system might seem like a worse setup for sick students without much cash on hand, Dr. W. Kenneth Stephens, assistant medical director and coordinator of athletic medicine for UC Health Services, said this system is a win-
Chief says no cops cut by budget
win for both students and Health Services. “Students getting sick — often times hundreds of miles away from home — will now know what their visit is going to cost going in,” Stephens said. “They did not know this before, and those costs were non-negotiable.” The old system — which health insurance providers were billed directly — wasn’t effective, because many providers STEVENS wouldn’t cover visits to the university clinic, Stephens said. He added that providers would refuse payment a little less than 50 percent of the time. At that point, students would
be stuck with a non-negotiable bill that was usually much higher than the $75 required now. “The new system improves participation of a student’s health insurance provider and reduces out of pocket expenses,” Stephens said. “We are seeing an increasing number of students and families with high deductible plans, where they are paying 100 percent of the expenses until they reach that deductible.” If a student gets sick early in the year, chances are they would have had to pay out of pocket in the old system, but the cost would have been higher, Stephens said. This new flat rate ensures a low cost and is comparable to most other clinics, like ones at Kroger or CVS, he said.
Stephens noted that the $75 flat rate might not be the perfect amount and is subject to change from year to year as the new system is tested and as costs are adjusted. This amount does not cover prescription drug fees, and that system most likely won’t change as it’s hard to put a cap on drug fees, Stephens said. Furthermore, the new system will save Health Services time and money by reducing the billing operation to a minimum, since it’s now the student’s responsibility to seek reimbursement from their providers. There are instances where a student SEE BILLING | 2
Political ads work best on intellectuals
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY GIN A. ANDO | THE NEWS RECORD
KELSEA DAULTON | STAFF REPORTER
SAM MORREN | SENIOR REPORTER The University of Cincinnati is looking for ways to tighten its financial belt for the coming fiscal year, but campus police won’t be getting the axe. The UC Board of Trustees has asked each department of the university to come up with plans to restructure their respective budgets to become more financially viable. “Every department in the university has been asked to compose a plan to help cut spending,” said UC Spokesman Greg Hand. “Each plan would then be presented to the Board of Trustees for them to make a decision [and subsequently implement the aforementioned budgets].” The Board of Trustees will most likely discuss the university budget in a meeting Tuesday, June 26, in the Russell C. Myers Alumni Center, and, in CURETON said meeting, each department would unveil their respective money-saving plan, Hand said. One key budget proposal in its early planning phase involves the restructuring of UC’s Public Safety office. “I plan to restructure the force in a way that improves a sense of safety,” said Michael Cureton, chief of the UC Police Division and director of Public Safety. The university’s budgetplanning phase is in its infancy, and it’s too early to describe or discuss any specifics about Public Safety restructuring or any other cuts that might occur in other departments, Hand said. Public Safety’s reorganization would not include layoffs of police officers or reduction in any section that might affect the safety of the university community, Cureton said. Money for the university budget comes from 48 percent donor support, 35 percent tuition and fees and only 17 percent state support. With state support decreasing, the university is forced to look for other ways to save money. Consequently, each university department will see funding cut in some way or another.
2 3 5 6
85° 63°
77° 53°
68° 45°
If Congress doesn’t pass a bill to prevent interest rates from doubling, approximately 22,104 students at the University of Cincinnati could be in greater debt than expected after graduation. The bill would freeze the impending July 1 interest rate hike on subsidized Stafford Loans, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown said. Brown visited UC’s Main Campus Thursday to discuss and seek support from the UC community for his bill — which would halt the hike. Joined by a panel of UC students at University Pavilion, Brown explained that the current interest rate of 3.4 percent would double to 6.8 percent.
PHOTO COURTESY OF SHERROD BROWN
URGING THE YOUTH Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown visited UC Thursday to seek support for his bill to combat a doubling of student loan interest rates.
BEN GOLDSCHMIDT | SENIOR REPORTER
MONDAY
WED
KARA DRISCOLL | SENIOR REPORTER
“The average student graduating from a fourStafford Loan year institution now disbursements has $27,000 of debt on in Ohio average,” Brown said. “The last thing we should • OSU be doing is adding on to $134,734,861 that debt.” An interest rate increase of 6.8 percent • Kent State could cost students an $106,622,657 average of an additional $1,000 per year, • UC Brown said. $99,035,697 With approximately 382,000 college and *Info provided by Sherrod Brown university students in Ohio receiving federal funding from Stafford Loans, it’s imperative for Congress to make higher education affordable for them, Brown said. UC ranks in Ohio’s top three higher education institutions to receive the largest dollar amounts in Stafford Loan disbursements — The Ohio State University receiving more than $134.73 million; Kent State University receiving more than $106.62 million; and UC receiving more than $99.03 million. “Nationally, student debt has reached $870 billion — more than credit card debt and auto loan debt in the country,” Brown said. “More debt means fewer graduates who can buy a home, start a business or go on to graduate school.” After taking out federally subsidized Stafford Loans for six quarters at UC, secondyear journalism and communications student Dymonica Hurdle said the impending interest hike could put additional financial pressure on her and her family. “We all know that the job market is tough, and I’m not guaranteed a job after graduation,” Hurdle said. “No jobs means I can’t pay my loans and just means more debt for me.” With rising interest rates and an unsteady job market, students are worried about a bleak future SEE DEBT | 4
SEE ADS | 4
Nursing students help Gospel Mission
College Living Entertainment Classifieds Sports
TUE
Loan interest rates will double if bill fails
Contrary to popular belief, recent research reveals that high sophisticates are actually more emotionally responsive to political advertising than low sophisticates. Patrick R. Miller, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati, is one of the first people to argue this point. Miller found inconsistencies with the way emotions are depicted in society in relation to politics. People generally view emotional political decisions in a negative light, but the separation of emotion and reason doesn’t naturally happen, Miller said. “Psychologically, cognition and emotion go together; they don’t counteract each other. Reason and emotion go together; they enable each other,” Miller said. “In my research, the people who are the most capable of understanding politics are highly informed, highly interested and highly attentive people … they’re the ones that are more likely to be emotional about politics and to act on those emotions.” The synchronization of reason and emotion explains why political advertising is overwhelmingly negative rather than positive, Miller said. Political psychologists have found it’s an evolutionary instinct of living beings to be attentive to threat. When they’re threatened, they’re more attentive and, therefore, learn MCTAGUE more, he said. Attack ads are more educational to an average citizen than positive ads because there are usually more facts in the negative ads, Miller said. Political advertising companies are aware that people are hardwired to pay more attention to negative information, he said. Miller conducted a controlled lab-experiment survey using political news stories on the issue of illegal immigration. The ads were from the 2000 presidential election. Miller manipulated the messages that each group was potentially exposed to. The emotions that the messages
THU
63° 44°
FRI
73° 51°
University of Cincinnati nursing students lent a helping hand at one of Cincinnati’s religious-based social organizations to combat poverty-induced malnutrition. Five seniors in UC’s nursing program gave an informative class about nutrition to a group of underprivileged residents of Overthe-Rhine at the City Gospel Mission (CGM) Wednesday, helping them to make wise dietary choices. Invited by Adele Corbin — clinic director at the CGM — the students gathered at the mission at 6:30 p.m. to give their class, titled “The Truth about Nutrition and Hypertension,” with participants filling all of the available seating and standing room around the perimeter of the room. Maelesha Lelee, one of the five participating senior nursing students, began by asking the gathering what they knew about hypertension — or high blood pressure — and fellow senior Daemeisha
Gibson filled in the blanks. “Hypertension is prevalent in the African American community,” Gibson said. “It can cause a stroke, heart attack or failure, kidney failure and diabetes mellitus.” Other senior nursing students included Sherrun Walton, Ashley Ruffner and Tracy Purtell. “We were really surprised by how much they knew,” said Ashley Ruffner. “They really guided the class, and we were able to build on it.” The students passed out common food items, asking the congregation about the nutrition facts found on the packaging. Along with that, the students put together and handed out reference pamphlets filled with things like normal blood pressures, fast food suggestions and healthy shopping tips. The congregation was also given blood pressure trackers — charts for them to record their blood pressure — to give a better idea of their current health, and also to help those at the clinic have a more accurate picture of
NEWSRECORDNEWS@GMAIL.COM | 513.556.5908
PHIL DIDION | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
A HELPING HAND UC Nursing students Tracy Purtell and Dameisha Gibson discuss health issues at City Gospel Mission Church. their health and what needs to be done. “It can be helpful to track your blood pressure and show your doctor,” said Tracy SEE NURSING | 4