One week to the day of the announcement (and resultant tide of good press) from OU President David Boren about a new health care clinic for the residents of north and west Tulsa, wherein Boren:

[Speaking to a crowd of about 150 people Tuesday,] said equal access to health care and education are Americans’ birthrights.

we have the news that OU will no longer be providing insurance premiums to retirees:

NORMAN — University of Oklahoma employees hired after Jan. 1 will have to pay their own costs for medical and dental insurance coverage when they retire.

The OU Board of Regents approved the measure Wednesday after university President David Boren said more than once the change will never affect current OU employees or retirees.

The university will help pay most of a new employee’s medical and dental coverage as it does for current workers and retirees, but that will change once that person retires.

“They can participate; they’ll simply have to fund their own premiums,” Boren said of people hired beginning next year. “It’s the kind of thing we have to (do) because of economic reality.”

A university committee on health insurance can always revisit the policy regarding new hires and revise it, he also said.

So, health care is your birthright if you live in north or west Tulsa and want to go sit for hours in the waiting room of a free public clinic, but not if you have worked for and retired from the OU system? No wonder it was so important to get that thing built.

Oh yeah, have you ever noticed it always Boren when it’s “good news” and the Regents when it’s “bad news”? I can tell you from reading minutes of Regents’ meetings that the Regents rarely–if ever–take a step that is not proposed by the university president.