Some books were read and sold back to the
Student Bookstore FOR FULL CREDIT during the usually two week grace
period - others were sold back at the typical highly discounted rate at
the end of each semester.
Various other expenses were also minimized:
Shaving expenses were minimized by the purchase of a mug,
brush, soap, straight razor and leather strapping strip and growing a beard
from October through March. I began the first beard of my life during
the 1969 deer hunting season (the only time I ever went on a deer hunt)
while still working at American Appraisal in Milwaukee. I still have
them all. Haven't found those purchase records but think they all cost
me less than $20.00. (Having a beard in those days was usually
only associated with hippies and other non-conformists - my motivation was
to minimize the distractions involved with social interactions of a sexual
nature so that I could devote all my time and energies to the intensive,
compacted 18 month curriculum needed to graduate as fast as possible
The minimalization of social activities was also the reason I chose the
out-of-the-way Artesia, New Mexico location to begin college. Each of
the couple dozen colleges I considered were in out of the way
locations.)
My 1965 Dodge Dart was sold immediately after returning to the
CoA campus from side trips to Albuquerque and Carlsbad Caverns. It was
black with power windows (only 'cool' or luxury cars had power windows in
those days), red bucket seats and 4 speed automatic floor shifter but only
got from 10 to 16 miles per gallon. Sharing gas expenses with fellow
students who had cars was a lot cheaper than keeping my own.
Several cases of celebratory beer were purchased very cheaply
at the military base exchange in El Paso on a fellow veteran's military
ID. (During that one semester in Artesia, I noticed that the
townspeople were really taking advantage of the students of the college in
their pricing - every six-pack of beer in the entire city was priced at
$1.50 when they could be had at 1/3 to 1/2 that in other cities - one grocer
filled the lettuce with water to make more money when it was sold by the
pound, a fellow student taking me down to verify that when I said it was
hard to believe.)
We stayed FREE at the ranch of another fellow student while
visiting the El Paso area during Spring Break. That Spring Semester at
the CoA was the one where the VERY FIRST CLASS of full 4 year matriculating
students graduated. It was another in a lifelong series of
serindipitous circumstances that bonded me with one disparate group or
another - in this case making it IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO NOT PARTICIPATE in all
the peer group and other social celebrations during 'our' final month of May
1970. (Most of my peers at the College of Artesia were fellow
veterans also in their mid-20s.)
Unless they were free, I never went to movies - attending FREE
lectures by Ralph Nader and other highly regarded speakers, instead.
Only went out for beer at local bars or Albuquerque Dukes baseball games on
10 cent beer nights/days. I did budget for a daily Swisher Sweet Crook
cigar smoked around noon as an alternative to cigarettes, alcohol, drugs,
movies, nightclubing and any other mood changing methods - they cost 25
cents per five pack. Mind altering interfered with studying or
remembering. My good memory allowed me to minimize the need for a
whole lot of studying and was facilitated by prolific note taking during
lectures - my mind needed to be clear almost all the time.
Figuring this was New Mexico, I didn't pay the extra fee and
minimal monthly charges to have the gas connected in the walk-up efficiency
apartment across from Roosevelt Park in Albuquerque. (Hah! The 1970/71 Winter was the coldest in New Mexico in more
than 40 years. I had to buy a small electric space heater to keep
under the slanted tent-like blanket covering my head and upper body while
sleeping. I spent as much other non-class time keeping warm in the UNM
library - read the couple dozen Vardis Fischer novels and other books
instead of sleeping. Had already exhausted the genealogical resources
in the library during the Summer Session.
Full resident tuition at UNM would have been
$686 less ($40.35/month) had I moved to live and work in New Mexico a year
earlier and jumped through all the hoops necessary to get accepted thereat
with high school and college GEDs instead of a formal high school
diploma. The College of Artesia (CoA) did accept students with high
school GEDs. After enrolling and moving onto the CoA off-campus
housing, I drove up to Albuquerque to visit my father and step-mother and
store some extra stuff at his home. I also obtained the UNM student
recruitment literature and discovered that UNM was required under state law
to accept any transfer student (in good standing) from any other New Mexico
college. So, given the limited course offerings at CoA; my need to
take all the prerequisite courses in business and psychology in order to
further my graduate school studies; and the desire to do it all before
September of 1971, I immediately began planning to transfer to UNM for their
1970 Summer session.
I took mostly junior and senior level courses allowed under my
Bachelor of University Studies (BUS) degree program except when lower level
prerequisites were required for the higher level courses I needed in
Psychology or Business - some freshman or sophomore level classes were taken
because nothing else was available at that hour of the day I had decided to
be on campus.
Before beginning full time college in early 1971,
I already had 9 credits from U. of Hawaii night school
classes taken while serving my last two years in the U.S. Navy in
Hawaii. Another 8 credits was given by UNM to
veterans in lieu of health and physical education courses required for
regular students.
adding those 17 credits to the 12 credits
taken during my FRESHMAN 1970 Summer session at UNM pushed
me into SOPHOMORE status [29 total credits] for the ensuing 1970 Fall semester;
the recognition of the 18 (of 21) credits from the
College of Artesia, along with the 21 credits taken during
that Fall Semester, pushed me up into JUNIOR status [68 total credits] for the ensuing 1971 Spring semester;
the final leap to SENIOR status [122 total credits] during MY FINAL 1971 12
credit Summer session came after the 27 credits taken
the Spring semester were added to the 27 credits finally
recognized for the Chinese Mandarin course taken at the former Army Language
School in Monterey, California in 1961 shortly after joining the Navy in
1960 - giving me a grand total of 134 credits or 2 more than
were needed to fulfill the undergraduate degree requirements.
The former Army Language School (ALS) is now called the Defense
Language Institute (DLI). Those 27 credits weren't
being recognized on my official transcript at UNM until, after months of
fruitless communications from Sep. 1970 to April 1971, I walked into the
?registrar's? office and pulled the appropriate book off her shelf to find
and point to the page which showed the specific course I took and that it
was eligible for the full 27 credits. (I
had quite intentionally perused that book during the last of my seven years
in the Navy to make sure it was good for the full 27 credits talked about by my fellow students six years
earlier in 1961 - most of them in the U.S. Army and having already been
to or graduated from college - except for the few officers, none of us U.S.
Navy students had more than high school diplomas, and I didn't even have
that.) [ Click here ((local)) to see the Graduation Program we had in
what was called the "Tin Barn" back on 24 October 1961. My name can be
seen 3rd from the bottom at the left side of the last or 4th page. ]
The problem they were having was that I had only been at
Monterey for 10 months from Jan. through Oct. 1961, while the course in the
book indicated an 11 month duration. Finally becoming aware of their
problem, I explained that I had started in one class and after around 26
weeks advanced six weeks into the next class - ergo the shorter period of
time while still fulfilling the requirements for the lengthy, 47 week, 27
college credit course of instruction. I also pointed out that I'd
graduated 5th among 25 in the class into which I'd been advanced - I was
first in the class I'd left but those 'formal' determinations weren't made
until completion of all studies - rankings were too politically incorrect at
the time, probably due to the embarassment to some of the officers for their
not being able to do as well as the enlisted men (there were no women in our
Chinese Mandarin classes at that time, although we did have quite a few
female instructors.)
The Spring 1971 semester was the last one where
the administration was still on campus and capable of making my records
reflect all of the credit hours due me - a very important action required so
that I could finish matriculating during the final summer session. It
was also the busiest semester due to my decision the prior Fall semester to
take 33 hours in a 9 to 5 daily schedule just like working at a full time
job - although I attended the classes and would have received a B from one
of them, 6 of those hours were changed to audit or non-credit status -
resulting in 27 accredited hours and leaving only 12 needed to satisfy the
full graduation requirement.
Spring '71 was also the only semester my grade point average wasn't above
3.5 (of a 4.0 maximum) due to the only 3 C's received during my entire
college studies - 2 of those C's from one professor who didn't like what I
said in one class about one of his respected peers. (That
other professor had just finished a 3 day long 'Nazi' type 'Psychology of
Abusive Behavior' session on campus - click here to read what I wrote about it in my diary
entry of May 12th, 2004.)
It was also the semester I moved out of the 2nd floor walk-up
efficiency I'd been living in six months and into another basement room (1
among 3) with a shared shower and no cooking facilities. I actually
stayed in a girlfriend's home - she slept with her mother while I took her
bed - we never had sexual relations the entire 4 month relationship.
(Sex was subordinated to studies until my final 1970 summer session
- something much easier to do when the studies are condensed into a less
than 19 month time span.)
Living in that basement room without cooking facilities
introduced me to various ways of eating out cheaply, since I couldn't afford
any other way. Most involved low priced Student Union cafeteria food
with jaunts to 'all you can eat' spaghetti places on weekends. Parties
with food, political events and invitations to dinner from whomever were
others - none involved trading for anything in return, although some female
artists offered to paint me in the nude - didn't talk long enough to
discover which of us was supposed to be naked.
The portable electric typewriter was
purchased in anticipation of all the papers that would be required for many
of the 48 credit hours of courses planned for the Fall 1970 and Spring 1971
semesters at UNM. Most of them were typed in the basement room during
the months of April & May 1971. (The typewriter also came in
handy during subsequent genealogical records creation, my short Milwaukee
Public Schools book buyer job stint, at graduate school and when writing
letters to politicians and businesspeople.)
A total of $317.60 was earned during 1970 & 1971
from odd jobs during various semester breaks; studies consumed all of my
extra time once the very busy Spring 1971 Semester began.
College of Artesia (CoA)