Noon meeting at Hannon Library open to public both in person and online

By Holly Dillemuth, Ashland.news

Southern Oregon University trustees are slated to cast a weighty vote during their on-campus meeting Friday afternoon. The university’s realignment plan, “SOU Forward,” cuts two dozen full-time positions as one part of an effort to bring the university’s fiscal model into balance in coming years.

While in town for meetings Thursday, April 20, and Friday, April 21, trustees are also likely to consider a tuition increase, which SOU President Rick Bailey has said he hopes will be the lowest for public universities across the state.

The board is set to meet from noon to 5 p.m. Friday in the Meese Room of Hannon Library, and are anticipated to begin the SOU Forward presentation at or around 2 p.m. The full meeting is open to the public both in-person, though seating is limited, and via Zoom. 

Board trustees will hear a presentation by Bailey and vote on cost management proposals that would reduce expenses by $3.6 million this year and identify another $9 million in recurring cost reductions. The proposals would eliminate the equivalent of almost 82 full-time positions; about 24 of those cuts will result in current employees losing their jobs and the remainder would be achieved through a combination of leaving open current job vacancies, retirements, voluntary departures and non-renewable contracts.

As previously reported by Ashland.news, SOU is navigating a structural deficit of between $10 million and $13 million, or about 20% of the university’s approximatly $66 million budget. ​​Through reorganization, process improvement, and program adjustments across the university, SOU’s cost management plan recommends a reduction of 13% of its  workforce, according to the realignment plan. The realignment plan is anticipated to be complete by June 2024, the end of the 2023-24 fiscal year.

The university describes its SOU Forward plan as a “four-plank strategy to realign the university’s fiscal foundation.” The first plank, or element, of the plan is cost management; the other three (aggressively pursuing grants, leveraging a surge in philanthropy and investing in entrepreneurial opportunities) are all focused on expanding SOU’s revenue base and reducing reliance on state funding and tuition, according to a university news release issued Wednesday.

The university states it is taking steps to align expenses with revenue, and to prepare SOU for strategic growth through the development of alternative revenue sources. The intent is to create financial sustainability and guarantee access for students of all income levels.

SOU earlier this week released the adjusted realignment plan, which doesn’t make substantive changes as much as it shares updates broadly pointing toward how a department is “reimagining” the way forward following the cuts made by the plan.  

“The plan, if it is approved, gives us the roadmap to do the changes that we need to make so in that sense there is a level of fidelity and specificity that will guide us moving forward,” Bailey told Ashland.news Monday. “As we move forward over the next several years, we will also continue to evolve. We will evolve well past this plan.”

Bailey thanked Theatre Department faculty in particular for gathering together a realignment task force to work toward a solution going forward as the department is slated to lose staffing.

“That is a work in progress, so I want to be respectful of where they are,” Bailey said. “So I can’t go into specifics other than to say that they are working on a strategy to maintain a robust theater  program with continued training in both performance and design and production.

“Of course we have resource challenges, and we know that we need to consider that moving forward, but I am heartened by the work they have already started,” Bailey said.

“Part of this is also about looking at what do we want students to come away with their experience at SOU,” he added. “And so are there opportunities for there to be more cross-disciplinary coordination between Theatre, Music, Digital Cinema, the Digital Media Center and Emerging Media and Digital Arts? I think the answer is yes. I think the question is how do we create those linkages and those intellectual conduits, so I think all of that will come from this work.”

Bailey, who said he met Monday with Oregon Shakespeare Festival Artistic Director Nataki Garrett, also commented that the High School Shakespeare workshop will continue to be eliminated under the plan as proposed. He is hoping that SOU and OSF can collaborate on a similar workshop in the future, though no concrete plans are in place.

“As we both work toward modifying our fiscal models, I think there will be a lot of opportunities for synergy and collaboration, and even potentially to bring back programs when the resources deem it possible to offer joint educational opportunities between the two,” Bailey said.

In terms of the proposed elimination Masters of Science in Environmental Education (MSEE) program, Bailey said that will remain in the current plan up for the vote, but will have a caveat.

“The difference is that since the initial draft of the plan, both our Environmental Science program have engaged in conversations that I think will not only offer similar educational opportunities in those programs, not to mirror what was in the MSEE program, but to incorporate some of that curriculum.”

Bailey said discussions are underway to reconfigure the MSEE program but didn’t share specifics on a timeline.

“Nothing that actually alters the programmatic decision of the plan, but I will say that the seeds are planted for reimagining what that can look like down the road,” Bailey said.

Several students are enrolled currently in the MSEE program in the future and Bailey said all current students enrolled in the program will continue to have “a pathway to the graduation stage,” adding that “more than likely” it will be at SOU.

Bailey also acknowledged cuts being proposed to the Native Nations Liaison, a position currently held by longtime Native American Studies faculty member Brent Florendo, who is of Wasco, Yakama, and Warm Springs descent, according to his SOU bio online.

“If I wasn’t retiring, I’d be upset because I’d be out of a job,” Florendo told Ashland.news in an interview at his office on campus earlier this year. 

He plans to retire this summer.

“This position, while originally and continuously funded by Admissions, has evolved into a direct report in sole support of Native American Studies Program, and Youth Programs,” states the original draft of the realignment plan. 

Now, the plan states: “We are crafting a new position which will be responsible for Tribal relations, student support, and mentorship of the Native American Student Union. The goal is to have that position defined, and a search underway, by summer 2023.”

Florendo asked for a meeting with Bailey during the Feb. 16 town hall, and he received it, according to previous reporting by Ashland.news. The two met with other members of the Native American Studies Program and SOU administration in what both groups characterized as a positive meeting that SOU aimed to view as crafting “a path forward.”

Florendo has told Ashland.news in previous interviews that his goal in meeting with Bailey and his administration was about speaking up for his people, and empowering the administration in its next steps.

Bailey said he’s been engaged in conversations with Florendo and with faculty from the Native American Studies Program to explore moving forward in a way that will serve at least three functions: “One is to serve as mentorship for Native American Student Union, one is to serve as a liaison to tribal entities on behalf of the university, and then one is to make sure that there is someone who can provide support specifically for, but not exclusively, for students from tribal communities,” Bailey said. “We are going to pledge to have an entity that is able to fill those responsibilities.”

The role will be funded through the university’s general fund, Bailey said.

Email Ashland.news reporter Holly Dillemuth at [email protected].

April 21 update: Zoom links updated.

July 2, 2025: Updated links to SOU Forward plan.

Related stories:

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)

Federal issue, local impact: Stalled student loan application decisions ding SOU enrollment (Sept. 8, 2024)‘This is a bittersweet day’: Trustees approve ‘SOU Forward’ plan for realignment – Ashland News (April 21, 2023)