The Cost of Higher Education

A few days ago I received a begging letter from my medical school Alma Mater, the University of Utah. The letter really pissed me off on several levels. First it was written by a U of U med school alumnus who spent one paragraph bragging about his wonderful accomplishments, of course attributable to the wonderful medical education he received at said school. The second and more important thing was the current tuition--$29, 663 per year for Utah residents and a whopping $55, 318 per year for non-residents. According to the American Association of Medical Colleges the average tuition for in state students was $25,000 in 2010-2011 at state(public) schools , and for non-residents it was $43,000; the average tuition for private schools was $42,000.

What is the actual cost of educating a physician? This appears to be a very difficult question to answer. Much of the answer depends on accounting methods, etc. but in fact no one who might be in the know(med schools) seems to be willing to answer it. Someone looking for this information on the internet commented it appeared that there was a concerted effort not to let this information be known. The only estimate that I was able to find was testimony before the Texas Legislature in 2009. Clifford Moy, MD testified for the Texas Medical Association that the cost of medical school and residency was approximately $100,000 per year. That means that the cost of making a pediatrician(7 years) is about $700,000. Damn! I never knew I was worth so much!

Another question is how has med school tuition changed over time and is the change due solely to inflation? From 1959 to 1963 I attended the U of U med school. I know this seems like ancient history, but it is my personal experience. A basket of goods that cost $20.00 in 1963 cost $141.00 in 2011(www.usinflationcalculator.com) This is a factor of about 7. My tuition all four years was $480.00 per year. Based solely on inflation tuition now should be $3,360.00 per year. In other words $26,000 of increase cannot be accounted for by inflation.

There are a couple of other things going on here. One is that state legislatures have chosen to decrease funding to medical schools. For example, the Utah legislature decreased med school funding last year by $2.5 million dollars. Another is the belief by some that the student should pay a greater portion of the actual cost. As of now the estimate would be that the student would be paying about 29-30% of the actual cost. Why not jack it up some more? How about 50, 75 or 100%? Hell, get the state out of the business altogether.

I can hear some saying that physicians make a lot of money and student loans are available, so stick it to them. The average U of U med grad now has $158,000 in student loans, and may need to borrow more money to get through a residency(minimum 3 years). Slightly over 50% of medical students are now women. The medical students are thrown together at the ripe marrying age and are marrying each other, so the couple at graduation may well have student loan debt of over $300, 000.( Plus under grad debt—see below.) Great way to start life. These debts are having an effect on specialty choice, with fewer and fewer choosing primary care, such as family practice and pediatrics, due to the lower pay of these specialties. Orthopedics, for example, has a median income of about $400,000 per year, versus $150,000 for pediatrics.

The net result of all this may well be a significant change in who is attracted to medical school. More and more wealthy students and fewer and fewer average Joes and Jills will apply, thus eventually changing the makeup of physicians in the US. It is already changing the makeup of the specialties for the worse. It seems to me that society has an interest in this and needs to get the state legislatures to get their collective heads out of their butts and stop this nonsense.

Now lets take a look at under graduate education costs. The Arizona State Constitution, which incidentally is now 100 years old, states in Article 11, Section 6 “The University and all other State educational institutions shall be open to students of both sexes, and the instruction shall be as nearly free as possible.” As near as I can tell this provision has not been changed. So how are we doing? In 1956, my first semester at the University of Arizona, for a full load of 18 credits I paid a total of $17.00. I still have the canceled check. In 2011 the $20.00 of goods from 1956 would cost $165.40, a factor of 8.2. Based on inflation alone, the semester tuition for a full load would now be $139.40. It is actually about $4600 per semester, or $9200 per year. The same thinking seems to apply to this as applies to Medical education, despite what the Constitution says. A bill has been introduced into the legislature, HB 2675, that stipulates that state university students must pay $2000 of their tuition unless they have a full ride scholarship based on academics or athletics, thus eliminating need-based full ride scholarships and limiting other scholarships of this nature that are affiliated with the university. Undergraduate debt at Arizona universities is now $21,158 per student. The sponsor of the bill says an additional $8000 in student loans isn't much for a college graduate who will be earning so much more than a high school graduate. Sound familiar? The bill came about because at the House Appropriations Committee last year lawmakers were told that 48 per cent of ASU in-state undergraduates do not pay any tuition whatsoever. The bill's sponsor, John Kavanaugh said:” This is not right. Our taxpayers shouldn't be paying toward free tuition in these difficult times. When students are paying nothing many don't take the classes seriously, and we have created a perverse incentive for students who may not be academically prepared for universities.”(Source: East Valley Tribune, January 29, 2012, page 11). Really? What happened to the State Constitution? Wait a minute. If I'm not going into debt for higher education it doesn't mean anything?

Another thing is lost in all this—the ability to work and pay your own way. I lived at home, worked, paid my own way through undergrad and medical school. Believe me I would have loved to have had a free ride in school. I might have gotten better grades and more out of school than I did. Never occurred to me I should have gone into debt. It was both possible and necessary for me to work and pay my own way. It would not be possible with the tuition charges of today. That is very sad.

These issues are societal in nature and need to be discussed by society as a whole. Decisions by legislatures, boards of regents and other leaders need to be made on what is best for society in the long term, not on what is expedient.

A Perfect Day

One of our daughters and her husband have been visiting us for Christmas. She expressed an interest in visiting some of her and our favorite haunts in Southern Arizona, also known as God's Country. So a couple of days ago my wife and I, our daughter, The Old White Haired guy and his wife packed up and took a trip. It was a beautiful day, 70's, bright blue sky. Unfortunately our son in law was not feeling well and didn't go with us. We left about 0830 and drove east on US 60 to Florence Junction where we turned south on a state highway to Florence. We continued south from Florence to Oracle Junction and then to Tucson. This road is a nice two lane paved highway, with a lot of desert scenery—mountains, saguaros, ironwood, palo verde and mesquite trees. On I-10 all you see is trucks and road construction. The Florence highway is much pleasanter, but slightly longer in time. Florence is the home of the State prison; Oracle Junction had a restaurant that reputedly sold horse meat back in the day. Anyway, at Tucson we got on I-19 and drove to Nogales.

There is a restaurant in Nogales, Arizona called Zula's. Zula's was founded in 1950 by a Greek family. I remember going there with my Dad in the early 50's. We got there just in time for lunch—clever planning, eh? They serve American, Greek and Mexican food—all good. But their claim to fame is home made apple pie served with a hot cinnamon sauce and, if you desire, a la mode. Which of course we did. After lunch we waddled out to the car and drove to Tumacacori, which is about 18 miles north of Nogales( see blog entry of April 16, 2011).

There is an arched window, no glass, in the museum just before you walk to the mission. I have used that arch as a frame before and wanted another shot through it, this time with blue sky. Imagine my horror when we opened the door to that room and saw a blue scissors lift and a green golf cart in front of the main door of the mission. Plus two workmen.



We milled around the museum for awhile, me casting aspersions on the workmen's ancestry for many generations, until—miracle of miracles—they packed up and left. I got my photo and we walked in and around the mission and the mission garden.



The photo below was taken with a cloudy sky. Which one do you like best?



Our next stop was Tubac, a few miles north of Tumacacori. Tubac was a Spanish/Mexican presidio at one time and has a state park there at the site of the presidio. In recent years it has become an art colony. There is an import store, La Paloma de Tubac, with wonderful pots, etc. from Mexico and other parts of Central and South America. The OWH bought a couple of nice pots for his newly tiled patio; we bought a small sort of jar and a few other things. Great fun.The photo below is of the jar we bought. It is about six inches high.



We then continued north to San Xavier del Bac, a still working mission just south of Tucson( see blog entry of January 22, 2010). The inside was still decorated for Christmas, the day being 5 January and Epiphany being 6 January. I hadn't brought my tripod with me because I was concerned about room in the car re pots, etc and I expected the church to be too crowded. Oh, well. I cranked up the ISO to 2500 and hand held as best I could. I think my Sony a900 responded pretty well. What do you think?
Below are two photos of the main altar area.





This Nativity was in a side chapel.



Side door.



Nave.



I also took a few exterior shots as the sun was sinking towards the horizon.



We headed for Tucson about 445 PM and found our way to the best Mexican restaurant anywhere. Well, at least in Arizona—Molina's Midway, on Belvedere just north of Speedway. I hate to think how long I've been going there but I used to know some of the family that own it. The ones I knew are all gone now, I think. We had carne seca gorditas, chalupas and green corn tamales. For the uninitiated a gordita is a large thick corn meal tortilla. A carne seca gordita has carne seca, lettuce and cheese piled on top. Chalupas are gorditas folded up taco style with whatever as a filling. Absolutely marvelous! Molina's also make green corn tamales, but only when they can get fresh tender white corn. Usually they put a sign up when they have green corns. This day no sign, but I asked anyway. They had green corns! Another miracle! Molina's are the best green corn tamales ever! I don't even bother with them at any other restaurant. We made them ourselves a couple of times—time consuming, mixed results. Molina's—carne seca gordita and green corn tamales—I thought I'd died and passed on to a far better place than I deserved. When we finished eating we came back to earth and drove back to Mesa. Good food, good weather, good sights, shared with great people. A perfect day!

Christmas 1942

For many years now my family has had a tradition of having a celebration on Boxing Day. We have a dinner complete with crackers and plum pudding. This year's plum pudding is shown in the picture below. After dinner everyone must perform a party piece. You can sing a song, play an instrument, show some of your handiwork or tell a story.


A few years before he died my father wrote out in long hand and told the story I am about to relate on Boxing Day for his party piece. This year while we were preparing for Boxing Day my daughter found the story he had written in a drawer with some other things we often use on Boxing Day. The story follows with a little editing on my part.

In November,1942 my father made the invasion of North Africa as part of an automatic weapons battalion. By Christmas they were still in the Casablanca area, charged with the antiaircraft defense of the harbor and the airfield. What follows is his story:

“After leaving one of our 40mm gun crews at about 10 PM I was traveling to my bivouac area to go to bed. No lights on the Jeep-war time-no-no at night. We did not need the lights. The moon was putting on a bright, bright show. It was Christmas Eve. As we were slowly moving on, we came to a scene out of Biblical times. There in a field on the side of the road was an Arab guiding a plow pulled by a camel and a donkey. We, of course, stopped to look and watch. With the Christmas star so close and the moon so bright, with an Arab, donkey and camel performing the same as in the days before Christ, I felt very close to what the birth of Christ should mean to all people. We sat and watched the three plow the field for a few minutes. About midnight German bombers operating from Seville, Spain sprinkled the harbor and airfield with bombs. One gun crew was mud splattered from an exploding bomb but there were no injuries.

I continue to recall the North Africa scene and believe more than ever the wonderful message and meaning of the birth of our Savior.”

I am so glad to have found this. He was not a person who expressed his religious beliefs vocally very often, so it is doubly good to have this written in his own hand. Thanks Dad.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree......

Some years ago I found myself stationed in Albuquerque, New Mexico courtesy of the US Army. Christmas rolled around and I discovered that the Forest Service was allowing personal Christmas tree cutting in one particular area east of the city. Being a long time desert dweller I had never cut my own tree but had always purchased one pre-cut from a Christmas tree lot. These lots always sprang up like weeds around Thanksgiving. I decided it would be fun to cut my own tree. Accordingly I took axe and saw,jumped in my pick'em up truck and headed for the mountains. The area they were allowing cutting was some 20 or 30 miles east of Albuquerque on what is now I-40, and then off on a side road a few miles.

I got to the area alright and tromped up a hill to where the trees were. I looked at a number of trees before finding the perfect tree—nice shape, no sparse areas, big enough—just right! I cut it down and wrestled it down to the pickup and loaded it in the back. It took up the whole bed and then some. It was a great tree! Got back on the main highway and headed for home. A few miles down the road at 60+ miles an hour I looked in the rear view mirror and horror of horrors! The tree had flown out of the back of the truck and was bouncing along the highway all by itself. Fortunately no one ran into it. I went back, got it back in the truck and managed to get it back to my quarters without further incident.

Then the fun really started. As an officer I had a sort of duplex, plenty large enough, sort of like a small house.I unloaded the tree and tried to get it inside. The bloody thing was huge! There was no way it was going through the door. I tried surgery, top and bottom, to no avail. I then discovered a number of limbs had broken in the fall on the highway. As I remember I scrapped it and visited a local Christmas tree lot.

Several years later Christmas and New Years were over and it was time to take down our Christmas tree lot purchased “fresh” tree. We had a burning pit on our ranch and I took the tree out and placed it in the pit. I then touched one match to a small branch. The tree seemed to explode in flame, top to bottom. I've never seen anything quite like it.The tree had been cut in Oregon sometime in October or November, been on a lot, been in our house and it was now early January. It still gives me a chill to think we had that torch standing in our living room. From that day to this our tree comes in a box, which we assemble and decorate. And lovely it is.

Chaps

Chaps are a leg covering worn by cowboys to protect their legs when riding through brush, for warmth, and to get a better grip on the saddle. They are usually made of leather, the cowboy ones anyway, sometimes smooth finished, sometimes rough. Sometimes worn by non-cowboys as part of a costume, sometimes worn by motorcycle riders for basically the same reasons cowboys wear them. Cowboy chaps come in two main varieties—batwing and shotgun. Shotgun chaps are sort of like a stove pipe: they cover the legs all the way around and close by a zipper that runs the length of the leg. Both types are attached permanently to a belt from which the leg coverings hang. Batwing chaps are basically open on the back, closing at the back of the thigh with a couple of clasps. Batwings are cooler and are easier for the cowboy to move around in while wearing them. Occasionally you will see a pair of chaps with the wool or hair still on them-usually shotguns-more common in the northwest.The top photo is of new chaps hanging in a tack store.


Chaps for me were very utilitarian. Mine were rough leather, undyed, batwings. The photo above shows me cutting wearing these chaps. Very useful in rough, brushy country. Everything in the southwest has thorns or needles on it. One day I rode in some brush without chaps and came back with thorns buried on the inside of my legs at the knees. I think one of the thorns is still in there. Cowboys are slow learners, but I didn't make that mistake again. Anyway, after cowboying for awhile my chaps had a mixture of my sweat, horse sweat, cow sweat, cow blood, cow urine, cow poop, thorns, and whatever else I had come in contact with on them. So imagine my surprise when I discovered that Ralph Lauren was marketing a men's cologne called Chaps. $45 for 1.8 fl.oz.online, thank you very much.

Well I'm sorry but if I wandered into the house wearing my working boots and chaps I would be thrown out so fast it would make my head swim. Even if I left the boots outside. How do they make this stuff? Take old chaps and boil them down? Or do they make an alcohol extract of old chaps. Eau de chaps! Umm, boy, that must smell good! I wonder what odor extracts best—the urine, the sweat or the manure? Maybe the cow's blood. I can hardly wait to throw a little of this on me and slip up alongside my honey and give her a little peck on the cheek. I'd be taking my meals with the horses in the barn and sleeping in the hay for a week.

Canyon de Chelly

The photo above is an iconic image of Canyon de Chelly with Navajos riding on horseback,taken by Edward S.Curtis in 1904.

Canyon de Chelly is a National Monument located in northeastern Arizona, headquartered at Chinle. It is on the Navajo Reservation and is jointly administered by the National Park Service and the tribe. There are actually two large canyons in the park which come together just before Chinle. Chinle means “place where the water runs out of the rock” in Navajo. “Chelly” is a bastardization of the Navajo word “tsegi” which means “rock canyon”; it is pronounced “shay”. The major south canyon is called de Chelly and the major north canyon is called Canyon del Muerte, named by the Spanish. To enter the canyon you go east of Chinle into the wash formed when the canyons come together. To enter the canyon you must be accompanied by a Navajo guide. There are two rim roads (North and South) which provide overlooks, anywhere from 600 to over 1000 feet above the canyon floor; no guide is needed for these drives. The canyon floor is about 5500 feet in elevation. The photo below shows Gnorbert reunited with his foster parents at an overlook on the North rim drive.



Thunderbird Lodge, which is owned by the tribe, as well as being a good place to stay and eat, provides guided half and full day tours. These are called “Shake and Bake” tours. The vehicle looks like an Army 2 ½ ton truck, open bed, with bus seats provided. On the full day tour lunch is provided. I highly recommend a full day tour.
Shake and bake truck shown below.



Canyon de Chelly has been inhabited for almost 2000 years. The Anasazi inhabited it from about 300 AD until around 1200 AD, followed by the Hopi and then the Navajo. There are still some Navajos who occupy parts of the canyon, farming and grazing some sheep, goats, cattle and horses. There a number of Anasazi ruins, petroglyphs and pictographs and Navajo hogans.

The photo below is of First Ruin-so called because it is the first Anasazi ruin you come to driving up the canyon floor.



The next photo is typical of the canyons. A beautiful place.



Antelope ruin, another Anasazi ruin, is shown below. The pictograph associated with this ruin is shown in the next photo. The antelope was painted by a Navajo artist approximately 1864.





The next photo shows a Navajo hogan with some pictographs on the rock wall of the canyon. The cow is a Navajo painting.



The next photo is of White House ruin, called this because of the white ruin at the top. It is Anasazi.



The photo below shows a natural window or arch on the left side of the canyon. It is called appropriately Window Rock. This is not the Window Rock that is the seat of Navajo tribal government.



Spider Rock, shown below, is as far up the south canyon as the tour goes. It is sacred to the Navajos. It is here that Spider Woman taught the Navajos how to weave.



Finally, as we were heading out of the canyon, here was this yellow horse under a yellow cottonwood tree.

Autumn at Bear Lake

The opening photo is taken from Temple canyon looking east to the south corner of Bear Lake. The east side of the lake is in Wyoming.
Bear Lake is on the Utah-Idaho border, at an altitude of about 6000 feet. The primary trees that turn good colors in the fall are big tooth maples and quaking aspens. On this particular expedition my son Dean and I stayed at the Edwards Lodge on the shores of Bear Lake and enjoyed a tour guided by the Old White Haired guy and The Saint. Dean and the guides are shown below.




Below: View from Edwards Lodge



The series of photos that follow are from an area called Temple Flat. The trees that have turned yellow are quaking aspen("quakies"). If I remember my GPS readings right they are about 7500 feet high.



I love to shoot quakies backlit to capture the glow that the sun produces shining through the yellow leaves. You have to be careful doing this to keep the sun from shining directly on the lens. I have a lens shade that came with the lens but my favorie and most effective is my hat. If you are using a tripod it makes it a lot easier to use your hat as a sunshade. The effect of backlighting is shown in varying degrees in the photos below.








The image below was taken in Logan Canyon.