Dr. Mary Cullinan

We’ve been busy celebrating all week. Saturday (October 30) was the highlight of Homecoming week, with the induction of five new members into the Athletic Hall of Fame.

Brunch started at 10 AM, but friends and families of the inductees started pouring into the Rogue River Room a little after 9:00. The sports talk was intense: it always amazes me that players, coaches, and fans can remember stats and stories from games ranging back over thirty years.

The inductees this year were truly legends.

Monty Cartwright—HPE professor for 22 years—served as head track and field coach (1985-98) and then as Athletic Director (1995-2001). Under his leadership, SOU had one of the most remarkable periods of athletic successes.

Bob Riehm served as head wrestling coach (1969-94) and tuned the SOU team into a powerhouse. During those years in wrestling we never had a losing season.

Sally Jones served in a wide variety of capacities at SOU (1974-98). She coached numerous women’s sports (volleyball, tennis, field hockey, basketball, cross country, track and field) and served as Women’s Athletic Director and Associate Athletic Director.

Griff Yates and Theresa Walton were the two student-athletes being honored. Theresa was an impressive track and field and cross country runner. Griff set 15 records during his exceptional football career.

Each of the five inductees gave emotional, moving statements about their time at SOU. However, Sally Jones’ words, for me, were the most memorable. She spoke about how radical and controversial the concept of “equity” was in college athletics before Title IX. Her descriptions of the conditions under which women athletes played were excruciating. The changes since then have been truly revolutionary.

Saturday was a great day to celebrate the past successes of SOU coaches and student-athletes. But it was also a good day to remember how far we have come.

The Rogue River Room has been busy. On Friday (October 29), the RRR was the setting for the annual Art Affair, an evening of music, food, and wine in support of the Schneider Museum of Art. The rain held off for the evening, and people arrived in artful evening attire.

Hosted by Linda Young and museum director Michael Crane, the event celebrated supporters of the museum and served as its main annual fundraiser. The Triplets of Jazzville played lively music that got people out on the dance floor before, during, and after dinner. Michael Crane previewed coming exhibits and discussed the outreach programs he has planned.

With silent auction items and a raffle of fifty bottles of wine, the evening was a financial as well as social success for the SMA.

Below are some photographs from last night’s (Thursday, Oct. 28) State of the University event. The full text of the speech is available here.

Sunday, October 24, was the 65^th birthday of the United Nations. SOU celebrated all week. Our United Nations Club, led by Dr. John Richards, hosted international speakers, films, and campus conversations on controversial topics such as the “ethics of torture,” international water issues, and the complexities of Native American sovereignty.

These activities greatly support our campus goal to help students become global citizens. The increasing numbers of international students on campus also add to the rich discussion on global issues. This fall, SOU enrolled 95 international students from 21 countries, including Saudi Arabia, UK, Belarus, Brazil, China, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Poland, Vietnam, Bolivia, Mongolia, Thailand, and Venezuela.

For the sixth consecutive year, with the help of the UN Club, SOU  joined with the United Nations Association of the USA to host a speaker from the UN on campus. On Sunday, after a performance by the Peace Choir, Stephanie Bunker, UN spokesperson for the Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, spoke to a group of community and campus folks about how the UN supports humanitarian activities.

Ms. Bunker has worked on every major disaster worldwide over the past decade—from Darfur and Afghanistan to Somalia and Haiti. She talked about the difficulties the UN faces—sometimes countries in crisis refuse to even allow the UN in to help. At other times, the safety of aid workers is an issue. In yet other situations, the severity and extent of the situation are much larger than the funds available to address the problems; then very painful decisions have to be made.

Ms. Bunker’s overview of the UN humanitarian work underscored the critical need for non-political, non-partisan, global efforts to address global problems.

The afternoon’s event was a sobering but enlightening celebration of the UN’s 65^th birthday.

Catch a glimpse of this lovely evening, with SOU friends and supporters gathered for wine and conversation. The full story is available here and the slideshow is below.

On Thursday evening (October 21), student government president Stephen Land and I tried something new: Dinner with the Presidents.

For several years now I’ve done quarterly Pizza with the President events. We invite students for free pizza, and they get an opportunity to ask questions or make comments, passing a mic around in an open forum.

This fall, ASSOU president Stephen Land and I decided to take a similar concept to the Cascade Dining Hall—and encourage students to ask questions of both of us.

The dining hall was busy at 5 PM, but students at first seemed shy about asking questions. As they warmed up, they asked about new leadership in the dining services, about working for Campus Public Safety, about participating in get- out-the-vote activities. Stephen made a plug for Homecoming events. Paul Adalian updated us on activities in the library.

Jonathan Eldridge talked about improvements in residence life. When Sylvia Kelley asked how many students were here on scholarships, lots of hands went up. She asked students to contact her with their stories.

Craig Morris answered a question about getting jobs on campus.

One student asked Stephen and me what we liked and didn’t like about our jobs. Another asked about our campus theme “On being Human,” so Jim Klein spoke about the Humanities Council and how the theme was chosen.

Everyone seemed to have a good time. However, Dinner with the Presidents doesn’t actually give the presidents time to eat anything.

I went home afterwards to have dinner.

It was a balmy, moonlit autumn evening. The Boys in Black played music on the front porch of Plunkett while a hundred guests sipped wine and tasted hors d’oeuvres. On Wednesday (October 20), we celebrated members of the President’s Circle along with members of the SOU Foundation Board, President’s Advisory Board, and Alumni Board.

For the highlight of the evening, guests gathered under a tent on the front lawn to hear words on wine from SOU’s Dr. Greg Jones. Greg is on sabbatical and had just returned from giving talks at Cornell—in fact, he had just arrived back in the Rogue Valley an hour or so before the event. Nonetheless, he was calm and collected, tailoring his remarks to his attentive listeners.

Greg Jones addressing the group

Speaking about the wines of our region and particularly the three wines from local vintners that he had chosen for sampling, Greg discussed changing climate, terroir, similarities and differences between southern Oregon and French wines, and the challenges of marketing wine far from a major metropolitan region.

The event was a lovely “thank you” to friends and supporters of SOU. I very much appreciate the work that Sylvia Kelley, Doreen O’Skea, and their team put into making the event such a success. And many kudos to Greg Jones, who generously gives his time to support SOU.

Fall term is speeding by us. Today I overheard a student talking about midterms. SO—mark your calendars for upcoming events before they’re in your rear view mirror. Here’s a sampling.

October 20.  Enrique Morones, founder of Border Angels, a non-profit organization attempting to prevent migrants from dying as they cross the U.S.-Mexican border, will speak at Southern Oregon University next week. He’ll appear at 7:00 PM in the Rogue River Room of the Stevenson Union. His talk is part of Hispanic Heritage Month activities and this year’s campus theme “On Being Human.”

October 28. State of the University. At 4:30 PM in the SU Arena, I’ll update the campus on where we are in this new academic year—and then we’ll have time to socialize at the reception afterwards.

October 29. Science Friday will feature Dr. John Roden (3 PM in Science 118).  And, in the evening, we’ll host the Art Affair—the annual gala event to support the Schneider Museum of Art.

October 30. HOMECOMING. The schedule is packed. Come to the game!

November 2. The HEC is hosting a summit of The Classroom Law Project, a non-profit organization with a mission to teach students to become active citizens in our democracy. The summit will focus on the upcoming gubernatorial and Senate races with a special emphasis on the concept of civic virtue, both of elected officials and of citizens.

November 17. The Raider Auction will be held in McNeal Pavilion to support Raider athletics. The silent auction starts at 5:30 PM.

These are only a few highlights—there’s a whole lot more happening in the coming weeks. Keep an eye on your calendars–we’re moving fast!

Last week was an amazingly busy time for everyone on SOU campuses in Ashland and Medford. With unprecedented enrollments, classroom buildings have been buzzing, and drivers have been jockeying for parking places in the “close in” lots.

SOU athletics teams have been extremely busy. The football team has been struggling, but student athletes have been extremely successful in men’s and women’s track and field, women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball.

For me, last week included a number of important meetings. On Tuesday, Paul Kelly, Chair of the Oregon State Board of Higher Education, spoke to the SOU President’s Advisory Board via teleconference about the OUS proposal to gain more independence from the state of Oregon.

On Wednesday, I met with gubernatorial candidate Chris Dudley prior to his appearance on KOBI and shared with him my perspective on the need for greater stability for higher education—as well as the need for OUS to have a different relationship with the state.

On Thursday, I reiterated that message both to the Ashland Chamber of Commerce Board and to the SOU Foundation Board. And I had similar conversations on Friday with visiting members of the Inter-institutional Faculty Senate and with SOU student government leaders.

We also had a wonderful Campus Connections “Jeopardy” show last week, hosted by Dean Arp and the College of Arts and Sciences. Everyone learned something—especially if they didn’t know their SSPC from their RCM.

And, meanwhile, the sun was shining on gorgeous southern Oregon autumn days. It’s great to see our campuses so alive!

A highlight this week has been the visit from Dr. Lawrence Krauss, Foundation Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration and Physics Department at Arizona State University. He spoke to a standing room only crowd in the Rogue River Room on Thursday evening (October 14). The location of the event was changed three times to increasingly larger rooms as interest in the talk spread through the community.

Dr. Krauss’s talk was the kick-off event for this year’s campus theme “On Being Human.”

In a powerful presentation entitled “An Atom from Oregon: Human Origins from the Beginning to the End of Time,” Dr. Krauss spoke about the physical components of humans, starting before the Big Bang. His excitement for his topic was evident—and he captured all our imaginations and interest.

Two of my neighbors stopped me on my way home after the lecture. They told me how delighted they were with the presentation, even though they didn’t understand it all. (I’m sure only a handful of folks followed all that Dr. Krauss laid out for us.) As my neighbors headed home, they added, “It’s so great to live in a university town!”

People will have another chance to hear Dr. Krauss on Friday afternoon at 3 PM. I’m sure the room will be packed. Kudos to Dr. Prakash Chenjeri and Dr. Dan Morris for all their work to bring Dr. Krauss to SOU.

Top photo: NASA Hubble Deep Field. Speaker photos: Richard Balzer

I spent most of last week in Portland—flying up Monday evening (October 4) and returning Friday evening. Friday was the regular meeting of the Oregon State Board of Higher Education. However, the Chancellor had scheduled a meeting for some of us on Wednesday, and our regular Presidents’ Council meeting was Thursday, so it made sense to schedule other Portland meetings with SOU donors as well as legislators and business folks.

I’m grateful to Steve Vincent, SOU alum and President’s Advisory Board member, for setting up some of these Portland meetings. For instance, we met with Wally Van Valkenburg, chair of the Economic Development Commission. (SOU Foundation Board member Anne Root serves on that Commission and was able to bring the Commission to SOU for a meeting last year.)

I also met with Don Krahmer, who serves on the Board of the Oregon Business Council and other entities focused on statewide economic development.

It’s important to help Portland-based people remember the contributions that SOU makes to the economic development and the professional workforce of southern Oregon. And I was particularly pleased to convey so much good news about SOU this fall.

Liz Shelby, in her role as legislative liaison, and I also took this opportunity in Portland to meet with Senator Mark Haas and Representative Mary Nolan. I could share good news with them—but also discuss issues that will affect SOU in the upcoming legislative session.

It was a busy week. Each day was packed. Hopefully, the various meetings increased the understanding of some key folks in Portland about SOU—and the significant contributions we make to the region and the state.

Given a choice, I prefer to be on foot instead of in a vehicle. I like to run in part because it’s exercise I can get without first driving somewhere.

Wherever I’ve lived—Berkeley, Oakland, Modesto, Nacogdoches—I’ve carved out neighborhood running routes. While I jog, I keep an eye on how people’s gardens change throughout the seasons. I look forward to exchanging greetings with neighbors. I note the subtle changes as the days lengthen or shorten.

I also enjoy the neighborhood animals. In Berkeley and Oakland, we had raccoons. In Modesto, we had roosters who made a tremendous ruckus in the mornings. In Nacogdoches, we had box turtles and colorful lizards. Everywhere I’ve lived we’ve had curious cats—and dogs that sometimes want to join me for a little exercise.

In Ashland, of course, we have deer. (We also have some other more dangerous animals that, I admit, I’m not eager to encounter in the dark hours of the morning.) I realize that we have too many deer. I know it’s hard to be a gardener in Ashland without building fences that would have kept out invading armies in the Middle Ages.

Nonetheless, the deer are lovely to look at. A year ago, a doe had twins in our backyard. This year, she (or someone very similar looking) had triplets. They stayed around our house for some weeks, but now I’m seeing them on campus in the early mornings. Our neighbor Jim Chamberlain, photographer extraordinaire, took the above picture of the triplets having breakfast in our front yard.

Yes, I know they’re a nuisance. But I’m nonetheless cheered up every morning when I see my elegant four-footed neighbors. Now the triplets can be seen eating apples from the tree in Roca Park.

Los Angeles Guitar Quartet

This was a typical SOU weekend: too many choices! Friday night (October 1), the first Chamber Music concert brought the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet to SOU for an outstanding performance to a packed recital hall.

Photo: RW Batzer

While I was captivated by the music, I was sorry to miss the volleyball game occurring at the same time. Our team dropped its first set since the beginning of September, but still extended the winning streak to nine.

Photo: RW Batzer

Saturday (October 2) was our second home football game—and the 78^th time we’ve played WOU. We haven’t beaten them since 1998—and for most of the game it looked like this would be our opportunity for victory. Sadly, a missed field goal in the last seconds lost the game for us.

Photo: RW Batzer

But—meanwhile the women’s soccer team was playing in the adjoining field (we lost 1-0) to Corban.

And all day Saturday SOU adjunct faculty had the opportunity to participate in professional development experiences led by Dr. Zinn, director of our Center for Teaching, Learning and Assessment. When I visited them before the football game, Jennifer McVay-Dyche was showing them the magic of Turnitin—software that identifies plagiarism in documents.

The Schneider Museum of Art was open over the weekend, and I was glad to see a steady stream of folks heading into the Hannon library whenever I walked by.

Campus was buzzing, so I know even more activities than these were taking place—to say nothing of all the activities going on downtown.

AND, what a beautiful weekend for a hike!

Atop Mt. Ashland - Photo: Jspeer

Sculptura

The Center for the Visual Arts plaza has a new look. A huge marble telephone rises above the bricks. Entitled “Sculptura”—the actual name of the phone when it came out in the 1970’s—the piece urges you to touch its sleek handle and try to turn its dial.

Inside the Schneider Museum of Art, you encounter more giant sculptures of familiar items. Remember the adorable Princess phone—or the first clunky cell phone? And, of course, the ubiquitous black dial phone with its curly cord. You can also view Dan’s version of a 1930’s radio and even a Sinclair gas pump adorned with Dino the dinosaur. (I remember him well from my graduate school years in the Midwest.)

These are all the extraordinary work of SOU’s 1999 Distinguished Alumnus, Dan Henderson.  A business major who has been a significant innovative force in technology, Dan holds 26 patents. In 2007, his prototype wireless picturephone was included in the collections of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

For the last decade, Dan has turned some of his creative energy into large sculptures, using marble and materials from around the world to link the powerful forces of art and technology.

SOU is honored that the first exhibit of his work is taking place in the SMA. This afternoon (September 30) New York-based international art critic Robert Morgan (left) spoke to a packed crowd about Dan’s work. Afterwards, visitors from around the Rogue Valley and as far away as Boston joined us for a reception honoring Dan and his art.

This is a remarkable exhibit. Go see it!