An estimated 120 to 150 attendees trickled into Southern Oregon University’s Recital Hall on Wednesday to learn more about the Rogue Valley Manor’s parent company Pacific Retirement Services and its pitch to operate a senior living housing development proposed for the Ashland campus. Another company will talk about its plans on Friday afternoon.
Officials from the cities of Ashland and Guanajuato renewed their 55-year-old Sister City relationship during a breakfast gathering Thursday in the Rogue River Room of Stevenson Union at Southern Oregon University.
The owners of Rogue Valley Manor in Medford are among two finalists to become an official partner to build and operate a senior living and educational facility on Southern Oregon University’s Ashland campus. Pacific Retirement Services, will make its on-campus presentation from 9 to 9:50 a.m. Wednesday, July 9. McCormack Baron Salazar makes its presentation from 1:30 to 2:20 p.m. Friday, July 11.
Southern Oregon University’s Board of Trustees has tasked SOU President Rick Bailey with recommending $5 million in budget cuts by the next board meeting on July 31 — $1.8 million more than previously anticipated to account for significantly low reserves in its $84 million budget for fiscal year 2025-26.
During a special dinner on Wednesday, June 11, SOU held its 22nd annual Lavender Graduation for LGBTQ+ students. Sweets Underwood, the event organizer for the Lavender Graduation, talked about the importance of creating spaces and bridging the gap for LGBTQ+ — lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer and/or questioning, plus other sexual and gender minorities — students in the community.
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek surprised Southern Oregon University graduates on a sunny Saturday morning at the school’s 99th commencement ceremony. Kotek, who congratulated each graduate on the stage during the more than two-hour event, described the tumultuous times facing the class of 2025.
It’s a small space — 9.5 by 9.5 inches, 90.25 square inches — but many of the nearly 900 Southern Oregon University graduates in attendance at Saturday’s commencement ceremony took advantage of the moment, perched on the cusp of finishing one of life’s chapters with beginning another, to do some succinct summing up atop their mortarboards.
Southern Oregon University will welcome 880 class of 2025 graduates and their family, friends and well-wishers to Raider Stadium, 378 Wightman St., on Saturday morning for the university’s 99th Commencement ceremony.
An estimated 5% of Southern Oregon University’s workforce — or the equivalent of up to 35 full time positions — could be eliminated in the coming fiscal year, due to a projected $3.3 million deficit, Rick Bailey, president of SOU, said in a phone interview with Ashland.news Friday.
As Raider-clad fans waited outside Lithia Motors Pavilion Wednesday afternoon, sirens grew closer, heralding the arrival of the NAIA Champion Southern Oregon University softball team after a parade down Siskiyou Boulevard celebrating their fourth national championship in six years.
In a reversal of fortune, a proposed 6-acre solar installation on Ashland’s northwest side along Highway 99 appears headed for approval after a public hearing Monday, Dec. 1, before a county hearing officer. The proposal had been tentatively denied by staff, then appealed to the hearing officer by the applicant, Medella Bison Ranch.
With growing concerns over major state budget deficits, stagnating population growth, rising unemployment and new data showing Oregon businesses have started looking elsewhere as they expand, Governor Tina Kotek announced her intention to dig the Beaver State’s business cred out of the basement
Asante Ashland Community Hospital’s birthing center and inpatient surgery will close by spring 2026, leaving only the emergency room and outpatient services, according to plans shared with staff Wednesday, Dec. 3, by Asante, the Medford-based health care provider serving Southern Oregon and Northern California.
Obituary: Mary Linda Jackson passed away on Thursday, Nov. 27, after a courageous battle with Alzheimer’s Disease. A Catholic Mass and Memorial Service will be held on Monday, Dec. 22 in Ashland.
Ask Strider: For Christmas, a reader would rather have pizza in her pajamas than Beef Wellington in her dressing up clothes, but family members feel differently. What to do? And another reader makes Strider wag his tail and think of pancakes.
A potentially dire budget cliff prompted the Ashland City Council Monday to look at possible future cuts to police, fire, the City Band and burial services, along with various ideas to increase revenues. The council held a five-hour “retreat” in its council chamber Monday to hash out ways to avoid expected budget shortfalls over the next three bienniums that ranged from just over $1 million in a best-case scenario to more than $23 million in a worst-case scenario.
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