Western Front - 1993 January 22

              The Western Front
January 22,1993/Volume 85, Number 22 Western Washington University please recycle
Legislators
want health
care reform
By Guy Bergstrom
staff reporter
Five state legislators from the 40th
and 42nd districts pledged their support
for health care reform Jan. 16 during the
13th Annual Legislative Reception,
sponsored by the Coalition for Women of
Whatcom County.
"I don't think that everyone should
believe that theLegislature, in one year, is
going to be able to come up with a pana­cea
for health care," said Rep. Pete
Kremen.D-Bellingharn. "It took us more
than one year to get into this mess, and it
will take us more than one year to get out
of it."
Huge financial burden
Gathering more attention than any
other issue was the staggering cost of
medical care. Sen. Harriet Spanel, D-Wash.,
emphasized health care costs have
risen two to three times faster than infla­tion.
"The criminal justice system and
health care are the two biggest culprits"
in terms of rising budgetary pressures,
she said.
The United States higthe highestpef-capita
health-care spending in the world,
but has a higher infant mortality rate and
shorter life expjgjancy .than Canada,
Sweden and Japan—allofwhich spend
less money on medical care and guaran­tee
coverage for all their citizens.
"Thirteen billion dollars a year is spent
in Washington state on health care ser­vices
(including both public and private
sector spending)," Kremen said. "And if
we don't work on it, were looking at $35
to $40 billion a year."
Commission's report followed
Although no legislator committed
themselves to a specific bill orplan, most
generally reflected the recommendations
of the Washington Health Care Commis­sion
and the four goals outlined by Rep. -
Kelli Linville, D-Bellingham: universal
access, cost containment, continued
quality and the use of existing money in
the system first.
"Whenlrealizedthatwehave 150,000
children that are uninsured I think that's
crisis proportion," said Rep. Dave Quail,
D-Mt. Vernon. "As our Governor (Mike
"tBwry) said the other day, 'To neglect
this issue is being penny-wise and pound-foolish.'"
Presently, 550,000 to 680,000 Wash-
Health care reform continued
on page 4
members joined together Wednesday in
dramatization of one of the root causes of
by the Global Links Club, the Associated
!§oma^
funded agro-forestry project in India. Food
distribution of food by randomly dividing
was part of a
l l i i l l i l l l i l l l l i l l l l l l l i i i i i i l ii
eats his dinner of rice and beans with his hands. He
Food distribution continued
on page 5
Officials say campus phone system to get better
By Margret Graham
staff reporter
Four months and a $30 hookup fee ago,
most of Western's 3,700 on-campus resi­dents
settled in for the last quarterof USWest
phone service at the university.
After four months and a new phone
number, new dialing system, new long­distance
company and a nearly useless
campus directory, many students living on
campus are wondering: why, and why
now?
Officials list a variety of benefits for the
new phone system, which is operated from
Bond Hall: no monthly fees, long-distance
rates and voice mail are cheaper, everyone
has access to hall-security systems and di­aling
on campus is easier — a caller only
needs to remember the four-digit exten­sion.
Students get individual long-distance
bills, call waiting and three-party conference
calls at no extra cost. In the future, the
switch may make it easier for students to
link up with campus information services,
such as the promised electronic library card
catalog, through computer modems.
Those benefits, however, have been
overshadowed by the confusion and incon­venience
of switching to the new system.
Although administrative numbers were
unchanged except for the addition of
Western's new prefix, 650, all university
residents received completely new numbers
Jan. 1. When they returned from winter
break, students sometimes had to wait hours
toplace off-campus calls because of jammed
Phone system continued on
page 5
Plum Creek tree-cutting rate causes fear of shortage
'This is the final part of a three-part
series. The second segment of this
report explored the complexities of
an old-growth forest and the
environmentalist's case against
widespread clearcutting.
By Colin Wilcox
copy editor
Plum Creek may make/history again.
Its cutting rate has led to widespread fears
of a regional timber shortage. For that, it is
very unpopular, and not just with conser­vationists.
Former U.S. Rep. Rod Chandler said,
"Within the industry, they're considered the
Darth Vader of the state of Washington. And
I think they've earned i t"
Chandler fears a timber shortage will cut
the next generation of millers and loggers in.
half. "I grew up in the kind of area where the
dream was to graduate from high school and
own a logging truck. I see a lot of dreams
being smashed by what I consider some
pretty short-sighted decisions by private in­dustry,"
he said.
U.S. Forest Service Ranger Charlie
Cortelyou has a different perspective. He
admits Plum Creek doesn't cut on a sus­tained-
yield basis. And although over-cut
lands have been replanted, he says they won't
be commercially viable for 20 to 30 years.
Cortelyou said that void will be filled,
however, by owners of small timber hold­ings,
many of whom are already cutting
their timber on a sustainable-yield basis.
He gave an example of Arden Tree Farms,
which harvests what he called "risk trees"
— diseased or decadent trees. "They al­ways
have trees to work with," Cortelyou
said. "You can't tell they've cut [an area
after] five years," he added. "I tell [the
small owners] to take care of their holdings,
because in 10 to 15 years jthey'11 be a gold
Plum Creek continued on
page 3
WHAT'S INSIDE? Accent, pg. 6 - 'We're Not Your Mother' returns to Western.
Sports, pg. 8 - Three football players are second-team All Americans.