SOU Campus News

SOU and Klamath Tribes sign MOU

SOU, Klamath Tribes sign memorandum

Southern Oregon University and the Klamath Tribes agreed this week to formalize their joint commitment to educational opportunities and access for members of the Klamath and other Native American tribes, and to offer programs that enable all students to appreciate the cultural and economic contributions of Oregon’s nine federally recognized tribes. Leadership teams from SOU […]

Veterans & Military Families honors vets

SOU Veterans & Military Families recognizes veterans

The SJEC Veterans & Military Families at Southern Oregon University held events during the week of Nov. 8 to recognize veterans and provide awareness to local resources that support veterans and military families. One hundred and sixty U.S. flags were placed outside the Stevenson Union to represent the approximately 160 SOU community members (students, staff […]

Student loan debt to be discussed at AAUW session

SOU’s Kristen Gast to examine student loan issues in AAUW program

Here are two frightening numbers. Right now around 43.2 million borrowers in the United States hold about $1.73 trillion in outstanding student loans. The scale of those loans – and the growing share of borrowers who fail to repay – will be huge challenges for society and for individual borrowers, especially women. The Ashland Branch […]

Richard J. Bailey, Jr., is SOU's next president

Richard J. Bailey, Jr., named president of Southern Oregon University

(Ashland, Ore.) — Richard J. Bailey, Jr., Ph.D., has been appointed as the next president of Southern Oregon University following an extensive national search and a unanimous vote today by the SOU Board of Trustees. Bailey has served as president of Northern New Mexico College (NNMC) in Espanola since October 2016, following a 24-year career […]

Students from American Samoa celebrated “Lotu Tamaiti”

American Samoa tradition of Lotu Tamaiti celebrated at SOU

It’s not unusual to meet students at SOU who are here – far away from home, hundreds and thousands of miles away from their parents and siblings, and life that they’ve known for 17 years or more. But to meet over 30 students who are all here from American Samoa, a remote island in the […]

Trustees appointed to SOU board

Interviews of SOU presidential finalists wrapping up

Four of the five finalists to become SOU’s next president have visited campus – including two over the past week – with one more candidate scheduled to visit later this week. All of the candidates are visiting for two days of interviews and presentations with various constituent groups and community members. Curtis Bridgeman, Ph.D. and […]

Finalists to be SOU's next president are being interviewed

Interviews of SOU presidential finalists are underway

The first two of five finalists to become SOU’s next president have visited campus over the past week, with the three remaining finalists scheduled to visit later this week and next. All of the candidates are visiting for two days of interviews and presentations with various constituent groups and community members. Chris Gilmer, Ph.D., currently […]

Toya Cooper is SOU's first-ever Vice President for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

SOU hires its first vice president for equity, diversity and inclusion

(Ashland, Ore.) — Toya Cooper, an attorney who has spent almost 20 years addressing diversity in higher education, has accepted an offer to become Southern Oregon University’s first vice president for equity, diversity and inclusion. She will start work with the university Nov. 15 “I think SOU is ready to engage the questions of equity, […]

SOU's Presidential Search Committee will conduct interviews in October

SOU presidential search entering interview phase

The Presidential Search Committee of the SOU Board of Trustees will begin first-round interviews by the start of October with candidates to become the university’s next president, and plans to select and interview finalists for the position by the end of October. SOU President Linda Schott announced in April that she will retire by the […]

SOU has adopted a land acknowledgement

SOU adopts “land acknowledgement”

(Ashland, Ore.) — Southern Oregon University has adopted an acknowledgement that the SOU campus lies on the ancestral homelands of the area’s Native American tribes, who were removed through a series of actions by Euro-American settlers and the U.S. government, beginning in the mid-1800s. The formal “land acknowledgement” was developed by staff representatives of the […]