{"id":184301,"date":"2016-09-09T06:24:58","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T12:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=184301"},"modified":"2016-09-09T06:26:38","modified_gmt":"2016-09-09T12:26:38","slug":"a-look-at-college-decades-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/09\/a-look-at-college-decades-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"A look at college decades ago"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMENTARY:<\/strong>\u00a0Old folks joke about walking to school in snow, uphill both ways while their grandkids roll their eyes. But those words have some truth about the changes in a couple generations.<\/p>\n

\"Michael

Courtesy photo<\/p>

Michael Swickard<\/p><\/div>\n

Take myself: I went to college in a different world than kids today who live in the same town and attend the same college. In 1968 I packed my suitcase at my parent\u2019s house in Alamogordo and moved to my uncle\u2019s house in Las Cruces, a mile from the New Mexico State University campus.<\/p>\n

My uncle allowed me a bedroom since I barely had enough money saved to pay tuition and fees and then books. There were no student loans so I paid my way through college, I could, because tuition and fees were about $180 a semester — which, adjusted to 2016 inflation, is $1,200.<\/p>\n

Compare that to about $3,400 a semester now charged<\/a>\u00a0for in-state tuition and fees at the same college and you see that loans are required.<\/p>\n

My possessions were a couple pair of jeans, some shirts and clothes and shoes. I had a four-dollar Timex watch, a wind-up alarm clock and a 1930 Underwood #5 manual typewriter borrowed from my grandmother.<\/p>\n

It is no longer 1968 and college students have personal wealth items today in values I didn\u2019t have for the first five years after I graduated and began working professionally. The only thing I didn\u2019t have was debt, of which young people now have lots.<\/p>\n

I had the choice of going to college or having a car. My ability to earn money would not support both so I came to college on foot. The good of it was I had almost nothing for anyone to steal from me. The first couple years I lived a very small life that did not require\u00a0much money.<\/p>\n

Luckily my father taught me photography when I was in junior high school so I had a trade to bring. That allowed me to make money\u2026 typically two dollars a published picture. That was enough to keep me in school and allowed me enough to eat. But eating was another story.<\/p>\n

The first week I was walking to campus one Sunday afternoon to study at the library. As I walked by the Methodist student center just off campus I smelled food, and it smelled good. So I walked in. The campus minister, Don Murphy was standing there and asked, \u201cCome to eat with us?\u201d<\/p>\n

I replied that I didn\u2019t have any money. He said, \u201cThen you can wash dishes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The food was great. They say that appetite is a great seasoning. My uncle was a bachelor and didn\u2019t keep much food in his house.<\/p>\n

As I was leaving Reverend Don said, \u201cDid you know that tomorrow the Church of Christ has a dinner, Tuesday the Presbyterians, we feed Wednesday night and the Baptists serve Spaghetti on Thursday?\u201d He gave me a couple other leads to free food and I lived a fine life.<\/p>\n

Every Tuesday was Air Force ROTC, which was a requirement for freshmen and sophomore men to take. I enjoyed the classes and actually enjoyed marching. They found that I was a photographer and I was appointed student photographer, which meant I went to many functions.<\/p>\n

For a couple years I walked to and from campus once or twice a day through sunlight, dark, rain, dust and gloom of night. Not any snow that I remember, though it would make a better story. Those days I had what I called the number, but I didn\u2019t share that with anyone.<\/p>\n

The number involved how soon I would be completely out of money and have to quit college. I got down to 60\u00a0days but never closer. Importantly, I left college without any debt.<\/p>\n

My graduation was a semester late since I was the first production director of KRWG-TV and helped put it on the air in February 1972. That was an unpaid position and I dropped hours to have the time, which I made up to graduate the next semester.<\/p>\n

Yes, it is a different world for college students with computers, smart phones, designer clothes and cars, along with a consuming life. Their choice, not mine. I wonder how a couple more generations will change.<\/p>\n

Michael Swickard is a former radio talk show host and has been a columnist for 30\u00a0years in a number of New Mexico newspapers. Swickard\u2019s new novel,\u00a0Hideaway Hills, is now available at\u00a0Amazon.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I went to college in a different world than kids today who live in the same town and attend the same college.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119613,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16,4],"tags":[125,133],"class_list":["post-184301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","category-swickard-columns","tag-education","tag-nmsu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}