The Claremore Progress has a story regarding the sharp raise in tuition costs at Oklahoma colleges and universities since tuition-setting power was ceded by the Legislature to the Regents. As I have previously noted, this is a huge problem. The Legislature voted last session to take that power back, but Gov. Henry vetoed it.

Of particular note in the Progress article, Tad Jones is calling for a review of tuition prices. How bad is it?

Rogers State University President Joe Wiley, speaking at a recent Rotary meeting, said tuition at Rogers State University in 2002-2003 was $77.20 per credit hour. Today tuition is around $118 per credit hour.

One word comes to my mind: Yikes!

The story also states:

However, a spokesperson for the Regents noted those increases occurred during a downturn that forced state lawmakers to slash state spending by hundreds of millions of dollars, including college funding cuts.

Universities, however, operate in a surreal realm where, though funding is cut, new programs and building plans are not postponed or cancelled. Buildings must go up! Libraries must be built so they can be named for our benefactors in the State Senate! We must built monuments to ourselves, and the students shall pay! We are educating!

All told:

According to the Regents, the average Oklahoma student pays $168 per credit hour in resident undergraduate tuition and mandatory fees at state research universities, $115 per credit hour at regional universities and almost $75 per credit hour at community colleges.

More and more, students (and parents) are having to take on massive amounts of debt to attain an education. And I am not opposed to students paying for their educations. However, I am opposed to unrestained raises in the cost of education. Allowing the Regents to set tuition is letting the fox guard the henhouse, and it must be stopped.

Visit the WynnCast Blog to get the latest exciting episode!

Well, we didn’t make the Okie Blogger Roundup since we were in Dallas, but I did listen to Passionate America and actually IMed the hosts and they read the results of the Okie Blog Awards for me. The results are here: http://okiedoke.com/ok/06awards/oba06.htm. As you will see, neither the WynnBlog nor the WynnCast won their respective categories. So I’m just a loser. I’ll stick with the age-old response of losers everywhere and say it was an honor just to be nominated. Actually, I’m being serious there. It was an honor, and all the Okie Bloggers do great work. I am happy for all the winners, and I am in great company with all the nominees. Here’s to another great year of blogging in the BlogOklaSphere!

The Texas Schoolbook Depository Building

The Reconstructed “Sniper’s Nest” Window on the Sixth Floor

We’re in Dallas for a conference this weekend, and I had a little free time Saturday so I got to do something I have wanted to do since high school. I visited Dealey Plaza where President Kennedy was shot Nov. 22, 1963. They have converted the sixth floor of the Texas Schoolbook Depository Building–from where it’s believed (I have to say, believed by some) Lee Harvey Oswald fired at the President–into a museum about the fateful event. I did quite a bit of studying about the assassination in high school, and I was shocked at how much of what is presented in the museum I already knew.

That said, I was struck by one thing. Everything looked smaller than I have always imagined it in my mind. The Depository is just seven stories tall. It’s a very small, compact portion fo the downtown area. In all the videos I have watched about the Kennedy Assassination, it always seemed like a long ways from the point where President Kennedy received the fatal head wound to the underpass under which the motorcade raced to Parkland Hospital. In reality, it is a very short distance. I gained a lot of perspective by being there.

Standing on the sixth floor, looking down toward Houston Street as it approaches the Depository then the hairpin turn onto Elm Street was very surreal. I have seen a lot of the videos of the re-enactments from those windows, but there is no substitute for the real thing. And as I looked down there, I came to a conclusion. I have never been sure that it was possible for Oswald to make the shots from the Depository. Having now been there, I have to say that it is possible. There’s no doubt in my mind that it was possible for it to have happened. That is not to say I have reached the conclusion that Oswald did it, or that he did it alone because I am still not sure what I think about that.

Another eerie thing about being there is that they have reconstructed the “sniper’s nest” window. As I looked at it through the protective glass (it’s hermetically sealed for your protection), it really hit me that this was the place. This was the actual place where all those events unfolded. Definitely a spine-tingling moment.

Another notable realization was, although I knew that Oswald hid the rifle between stacks of books, I didn’t realize how far away from the sniper’s nest it was. Oswald ran to the complete opposite corner of the sixth floor and hid the rifle in the books there before he descended the back stairs. It’s not a major thing, it was just something I hadn’t realized before.

And the last thing of note is that even without going to the museum, there is history all around there. The grassy knoll is still there. And, if you ever drive down Elm Street in downtown Dallas, look for Xs on the roadway. They indicate the location of the presidential limousine on the street as each shot struck the President. Chilling to drive down the street with that knowledge.

It’s a great museum, and I highly recommend the audio-guided tour if you’re ever in Dallas. You can read more about the museum at www.jfk.org.

UPDATE: Thanks to emailer Kyle who informed me that this link no longer offers one month of Netflix service for free. You can still sign up at Netflix and get their standard two-week free trial.

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As you may know, I am a fan of Netflix. You just join, select the movies you want to watch from their huge list of available titles (60,000+), and DVDs will be mailed to you. Take as long as you want to watch the DVD; there are no late fees. When you are done, just place the DVD in the postage-paid envelope and drop it in the mailbox. As soon as the DVD arrives back at Netflix, they ship the next DVD on your list. There are several monthly plans available. I have the plan that allows me to have two DVDs simultaneously, that way I have one at the house while one is in transit. It’s just an all-around winner.

For a limited time, because you know me, Netflix is extending you one free month of service as a trial of the Netflix concept. Click here to get started for free.

Okie Bloggers, today is that deadline for voting for this year’s Okie Blog Awards. Do it or regret it (and you don’t even have to vote for me)!

Click here to go to the Blog Awards site:

KOTV reports they finished in 57 days rather than the projected 75! Those early completion bonuses are very effective.

Charles Krauthammer is usually correct in his predictions, and he has proved time and again to have his powerful mind expertly wrapped around political events. In his analysis of recent statements from the Bush administration, Krauthammer predicts what we all know is coming: aerial destruction of Iran’s nuclear capabilities. He says:

An aerial attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities lies just beyond the horizon of diplomacy. With the crisis advancing and the moment of truth approaching, it is important to begin looking now with unflinching honesty at the military option.

The costs will be terrible:

He then goes on to list those costs, in terms of the economy (oil goes way up), the military (there will be much loss of American life), and American diplomacy (”The Muslim street will come out again for a few days, having replenished its supply of flammable American flags, most recently exhausted during the cartoon riots.”).

Further, however, he counts the costs of not acting:

In the region, Persian Iran will immediately become the hegemonic power in the Arab Middle East. Today it is deterred from overt aggression against its neighbors by the threat of conventional retaliation. Against a nuclear Iran, such deterrence becomes far less credible. As its weak, nonnuclear Persian Gulf neighbors accommodate to it, jihadist Iran will gain control of the most strategic region on the globe.

He develops this point further, discussing the possibility of nukes in the hands of religious (Islamic) fanatics who are bent on speeding up the Apocalypse.

In many ways, we’re not accustomed to having to make hard choices. Our great blessings may be our great cursing in that we may have forgotten that sometimes we have to make the hard decision to do something rather than the easy decision to do nothing, then live with the tragic results. God give us the resolve to do what is right.

Good grief folks. I know it’s Oklahoma. I know it’s football season. I know officials make bad calls. I grew up watching a lot of football games from the bandstand and playing and watching a lot of basketball games (and other sports) in high school. I know, I know, I know. But we have to remember that these are still just games, pursuits of fun to expand and broaden our educational experience. When it gets to the point that officials, even officials who make a bad call (or bad calls) receives death threats, we have culturally crossed a line that should make us all cringe and reexamine the high place we have given sports in our collective lives.

Are we really prepared to usher in an era of sports terrorists who would visit death on a man because of a mistake he made in officiating a game? Get a grip, folks. It’s only football.

And, having been an observer of a legal action involving an individual who had his civil liberties (you know, all those trivial Constitutional guarantee things) trampled by a school governed by the OU regents, I find all this public outrage over a game very disturbing when no one seemed to mind when this university grossly violated the basic rights guaranteed to all Americans. It’s a mark of civilization that we set right priorities. Some concerns must come before sports (and other forms of entertainment) if we wish society to continue.

From Ann Coulter’s latest column (dealing with the issues presented in ABC’s The Path to 9/11″):

For a president who supposedly stayed up all night “working” and hated vacations, Clinton sure spent a lot of time sitting around on his butt while America was being attacked.