Two trustees dissent in vote to authorize final ‘Resiliency Plan,’ including $5 million in cuts this year
By Holly Dillemuth, Ashland.news
In what has been described as a “fight for the future” of Southern Oregon University, the Board of Trustees Thursday morning voted 7-2 to approve the final “Resiliency Plan,” authorizing a total of $10 million in cuts over the next four years, including about $5 million this year from SOU’s $71 million budget as of June, according to SOU President Rick Bailey’s presentation to the board.
Bailey called the scenario the largest challenge faced by the higher education institution in nearly a century.
With declining enrollment and state funding, SOU faces a structural budget deficit. Trustees voted June 21 to authorize a minimum $5 million reduction. Bailey was tasked with configuring a plan to address the deficit, with leeway to recommend more cuts if needed — and they are needed to sustain the university going forward, according to Bailey.
What was then known as Southern Oregon State Normal School was closed during the mid-1910s and early to mid 1920s due to insufficient state funding, Bailey said.
“What we’re experiencing in my opinion is a challenge that we haven’t had for 99 years,” Bailey said. “I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the landscape that we’re in right now is the most challenging landscape that this institution has faced in almost 100 years.”
The vote, taken virtually in the board’s third special meeting of the summer, was the first non-unanimous vote since Bailey took the helm in January 2022. Bailey declared financial exigency, a contractual term, this summer as a means to reduce the size of the university and become more resilient to financial difficulties.
Over the course of three years, the plan approved Thursday eliminates 67 positions, 11 of which are currently vacant, as well as 25 classified and 14 unclassified positions. It also cuts 10 majors, 10 minors, and one graduate program. There are scores of other impacts to a variety of programs across the board, with the athletics budget also cut by more than $1 million.
“I don’t think any one of us is happy right now,” said Sheila Clough, chair of the Board of Trustees. “It’s a difficult decision that is going to affect people — There’s no way around it. However I know we have to do what’s best for the university overall.”
Clough, who serves as CEO for MercyFlights, has been in leadership for more than 30 years. She said trustees have received more than 1,000 emails, calls, and comments regarding the draft plans leading up to Thursday’s meeting, which Clough said helped “shape” the final draft of the plan.
“This plan is better than the one that was released to our campus community on Aug. 1, and that’s the direct result of all the inputs that we received from everyone,” Bailey said. “We looked at what would be the impact of that change on our students. We looked at, how would that change the institutional fiscal picture, because we can’t just put everything back and then lead to another structural problem. We looked at our values as an institution — all of these things were factors as we considered all of this input.
“None of this is in any way a judgment or a commentary about the caliber of a specific program or a specific position,” Bailey said. “It really was a recognition that we needed to live within our means and how do we become a more focused, more responsive, more resilient institution.”
The plan will cut the following majors:
- Chemistry
- Financial Mathematics
- Mathematics
- Mathematics/Computer Science
- Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies
- International Studies
- Management
- Power & Politics
- Spanish Language & Culture
- Sustainable Tourism Management
The plan also cuts the following minors:
- Early Childhood Development
- Ethics
- International Studies
- Latin American Studies
- Marketing
- Philosophy
- Rhetoric & Reason
- Social Sciences
- Special Education
- Tourism Management
The following majors which were previously slated for elimination will be kept, with conditions:
- Creative Writing
- Ecology & Conservation
- Economics
- Emerging Media Digital Arts (EMDA)
- Healthcare Administration
- Human Services
- Outdoor Adventure Leadership
The plan will also cut the Outdoor Adventure Leadership Graduate Program.
For current juniors and seniors, all programs will continue to be taught for the next two years.
The Mathematics degree, which was slated to be kept in the Provisional Plan released Aug. 1, will be eliminated, but offered as a minor or certificate, according to the plan. The plan states “the headcount is too low to continue offering in its present form.”
SOU trustee: ‘I strongly believe this plan will harm our students’
The Chemistry Department, another STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) degree, will also be eliminated. The plan states that Chemistry has a high cost versus number of enrolled students, with an average of nine graduates per year. All chemistry courses required for all remaining majors will continue to be provided by chemistry faculty, according to the plan.
“Chemistry is unquestionably a critically important program with outstanding faculty,” the plan states. “They have a strong track record of supporting students into top-rated graduate programs.
“Ultimately, the longstanding low faculty-to-student ratio precludes the ability for the university to continue offering this program of study,” the plan states. “The program will retain three faculty and continue to support a range of other majors on campus.”
Hala Schepmann, chair of the Chemistry Department, is also a board trustee and was one of two trustees to vote against the plan.
“I strongly believe this plan will harm our students, our regional businesses, our state and higher education,” Schepmann said. “I believe we are nearer to cresting the hill and cutting so deeply feels premature, dangerous and even reckless. Of all the options available to us, it feels like the nuclear option was chosen, which does not seem like a good economic move to me.
“Being asked to approve a plan where we have been presented with a budget that with significant fluctuations — repeatedly — is unsettling,” she added.
The Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies (GSWS) major has also been eliminated, but will remain a minor with Ethnic & Racial Studies.
“Although retaining coursework in the field of GSWS is essential, the number of students in the major is too low to justify ongoing low-enrolled courses,” the plan states. “Focus will be placed on a minor and community trainings.”
The Outdoor Adventure Leadership program was initially set to be cut, but was revised to operate with two fewer faculty instead. Despite the undergraduate program being intertwined with the graduate program, the latter program is being eliminated under the final plan. The graduate program has had less than 10 graduates in the last five years, according to the final plan.
The Native American Studies minor has also been retained under the final plan.
The university states it will “explore the creation of a Center for Native American Programs” on campus, a space that would continue to support the program as it currently exists. It would also serve as a hub for academic, student, and Native Nations collaboration, according to the plan.
Among other cuts is the Accelerated MAT track for a Masters of Arts in Teaching, due to low enrollment and streamlined master’s level offerings for School of Education, according to the plan.
The English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) endorsement program has also been eliminated due to low enrollment.
Trustee Thalden: ‘We have been cutting our way to being a worse university’
Trustee Barry Thalden, in his seventh year as a board trustee, cast the other dissenting vote on the plan. Thalden said he joined the board because he thought SOU could be a great university.
“But, unfortunately, that’s not what’s been happening,” Thalden said. “We have been cutting our way to being a worse university.”
Thalden said the Resiliency Plan is the fourth and most devastating set of budget cuts during his tenure.
“Today’s decision is the most important decision we are ever going to make while we are on this board of trustees,” Thalden said. “I believe the extent of these cuts being proposed are too deep and are devastating to the university.
“It’s making students nervous, frustrating faculty and staff, and upsetting alumni and donors,” he added. “Unfortunately, faculty are already leaving. I know three personally that are gone and alumni, as you’ve seen, have written hundreds of concerned letters and emails.
“We do not want a plan to create a worst-case university,” he added.
Bailey shared respect for Thalden’s perspective, but said he fundamentally disagrees.
“I would not be in this role and excited about our future if I didn’t believe in the future of the institution and believe in better days ahead of us,” he said. “But I also think that we have to be very careful as a campus community to put ourselves in a place that is so precarious that we don’t fundamentally respect the nature of the challenge that we are facing.
“As a business leader, this is the part where I’m surprised in some ways at Trustee Thalden’s perspective … we just fundamentally disagree on the severity of the challenge that we are facing,” he added.
“There are 60 higher ed institutions in this country in the last five years that have closed and all of them closed for the same reason and that is because they didn’t respect the gravity of the financial challenges that they were facing. I don’t want that to be SOU.”
Trustee Barry: Resiliency Plan ‘Painful,’ but ‘necessary’
Trustee Brent Barry, who also serves as superintendent of Phoenix-Talent School District, acknowledged the tough situation, but agrees with Bailey that it is necessary, even if painful.
“This plan hurts,” Barry said.
“SOU is a family … these are people and programs and things we truly love and cherish,” he added.
“Nobody signed up for what we’re doing today … But in reality that’s exactly what we signed up for as trustees and leaders is to actually make decisions and make sure that we have a plan to thrive for SOU,” he said.
Santos: ‘Nobody’s going to love this plan’
Daniel Santos, the longest-serving member of the board, also offered his perspective.
Santos acknowledged that factors changed in July and August, resulting in the need for more extensive cuts than initially proposed in June.
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“At the end of the day … nobody’s going to love this plan,” Santos said. “Do I have confidence in the administration to propose this plan? I do.”
“I don’t know what that silver bullet is,” he added.
Santos noted that enrollment and retention numbers could use work.
“We own that, but it’s not a critique on the staff,” Santos said. “I sense that, could things be worse if we weren’t doing better in our efforts? Yes, I think that’s true.”
Bailey is an ex-officio member of the board trustees and does not vote. Trustee Michelle Fuentes, an undergraduate student at SOU, also does not have the ability to vote.
Public comment was not taken during the meeting since it had been taken at the most recent special board meeting on Aug. 27.
Faculty and staff personally impacted by cuts are currently being notified or will be notified in the coming week, according to SOU officials.
This is the first in a series of stories regarding SOU’s decision to move forward with $10 million in cuts to the university. Look for more stories soon at Ashland.news. If you are personally impacted by the cuts, please reach out to Ashland.news reporter Holly Dillemuth at [email protected] if you would like us to share your story.
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Tuesday virtual SOU Trustee board meeting, vote on updated budget cuts, canceled (Sept. 2, 2025)
SOU Faculty Union: ‘It is going to take some time for trust to be rebuilt’ (Aug. 30, 2025)
SOU budget cuts: ‘There’s no part of the institution that hasn’t been touched by this’ (Aug. 28, 2025)
SOU President: ‘Today we are declaring exigency,’ ‘building’ to a $60 million university, 15% off current budget (Aug. 2, 2025)
SOU trustees praise Bailey’s leadership during turbulent times at SOU, cut his pay $53K at his request (July 30, 2025)
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SOU President: ‘We can’t continue to cut our way to some type of success’ (June 24, 2025)
SOU President Bailey says ‘stark’ financial woes facing Oregon universities in 2025-26 constitute a ‘crisis’ (June 8, 2025)
Oregon’s economic outlook clouded by tariffs and federal spending cuts – OPB (May 15, 2025)
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‘This is a bittersweet day’: Trustees approve ‘SOU Forward’ plan for realignment – Ashland News (April 21, 2023)
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