Carl Green, Jr., to receive SOU's Outstanding Young Alumni Award

Four SOU alumni honored for service

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A retired professor and Cherokee Nation member, a current small college president, a U.S. Air Force colonel who commands Oregon’s Air National Guard fighter wing and an Alaskan who has gone from wrestler to civil rights leader all will be honored on Thursday, Nov. 3, when Southern Oregon University recognizes this year’s alumni award winners.

This year’s four award recipients were chosen by the SOU Alumni Association Board of Directors: Helen Redbird-Smith, Ph.D., for the Outstanding Alumni Award; Cynthia Pemberton, Ed.D., for the Alumni Excellence in Education Award; Col. Todd Hofford for the Stan Smith Alumni Service Award; and Master Sgt. Carl Green for the Outstanding Young Alumni Award. The awards ceremony will be at 11:30 a.m. in the Stevenson Union’s Rogue River Room.

Redbird-Smith
Helen Redbird-Smith grew up in Oklahoma, a member of the Cherokee Nation, but moved with her family to southern Oregon shortly after World War II when her father wanted her to attend “Elmo’s school” – a reference to Southern Oregon College under then-President Elmo Stevenson. She graduated in 1951 with a bachelor’s degree in education, then went on to earn master’s and doctoral degrees in anthropology from the University of Colorado. Redbird-Smith returned to Oregon to serve for 30 years on the faculty at Western Oregon University and received an appointment in 1980 from President Jimmy Carter to provide advice and counsel on the issues of Native American students. She still finds joy in learning – taking classes in film, science, Japanese and philosophy – and in honor of her SOU connections has donated to the Hannon Library many of her research papers, monographs, ephemera and documents related to Native American Tribes.

Pemberton
Cynthia Pemberton grew up in Medford and went on to Willamette University, competing as a student-athlete on the swim team and earning bachelor’s degrees in biology and psychology. She worked in Hawaii for the Dolphin Language Institute, then returned to the Rogue Valley as a swim coach for the Southern Oregon Swim Association in Ashland, and while coaching full-time in 1983, completed her master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies at SOU, with a focus on physical education, sports psychology and nutrition. She held coaching and teaching positions at the University of Nevada, Reno, and at Linfield College in McMinnville, before earning her doctorate in educational leadership at Portland State University in 1996. She has held administrative positions at Idaho State University in Pocatello, Dickinson Staten University in North Dakota and Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, and has served as president of Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho, since 2018.

Hofford
Todd Hofford grew up in Ashland and worked while in high school at the historic Mark Antony Hotel (now the Ashland Springs Hotel). He was placed on academic probation during his freshman year at SOU, then enlisted in the Oregon Air National Guard to help pay for school and bore down academically while commuting between Ashland and Kingsley Field in Klamath Falls, eventually graduating magna cum laude in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration – and a year later, with a second bachelor’s degree in communication. He earned a spot in 1998 at the U.S. Air Force Officer Training School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, where he was commissioned as a second lieutenant before entering a two-year pilot program at Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma. He returned to Oregon – first to Kingsley Field and then to the Portland Airbase as a fighter pilot in the 142nd Fighter Wing. He now serves as commander of the 142nd Wing, overseeing 1,400 service personnel and $2.2 billion worth of aircraft and equipment.

Green
Carl Green, Jr., grew up on Kodiak Island, Alaska, and was the first in his family to graduate high school. He moved to Washington to wrestle in junior college, but returned to his home state and joined the Alaska Army National Guard to help pay for his education. He moved to Ashland to attend SOU and wrestle, transferring to the Oregon Army National Guard. An injury ended his wrestling career, but he concentrated on academics, earning bachelor’s degrees in 2009 in psychology and human communication, with certificates in human resources, mediation and conflict resolution, and nonprofit management. He re-enlisted in the military, this time in the Oregon Air National Guard, then earned a master’s degree in public administration at the University of Oregon. Green has held operations analyst positions at the Bonneville Power Administration and the TriMet public transportation system in Portland, then as an equity officer at TriMet and later at the Regional Transportation District in Denver. He was promoted early this year to interim director of the Colorado agency’s Civil Rights Division.

Campus climate survey a mixed bag

“Campus Climate” put to the test at SOU

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Southern Oregon University’s Office for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion conducted a campus-wide “Climate Survey” last May to assess the attitudes, perceptions and experiences of students, faculty and staff related to EDI programming and initiatives.

The survey findings revealed that respondents generally felt more satisfied than not with SOU’s overall climate of equity, diversity and inclusion. But students, faculty and staff at the same time gave low ratings to campus diversity and the level of resources committed to diversity efforts.

The results are being used to inform efforts already underway by the EDI office to address concerns and circumstances that may disproportionately affect Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), transgender/non-binary and other specific demographic groups on campus.

The survey – designed by SoundRocket, a Michigan-based survey research organization that specializes in higher education consultation – was initiated to measure experiences, beliefs and opinions about diversity, equity and inclusion at SOU. This year’s survey will serve as a baseline to compare against future survey results and gauge SOU’s progress.

“The EDI office is glad to have the findings, and excited to bring even greater data-driven focus to our efforts to improve both the experiences and perceptions of all members of our campus community,” said SOU Vice President for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Toya Cooper.

While an overall majority of respondents expressed satisfaction with the university’s climate for equity, diversity and inclusion – and said they had never personally been discriminated against at SOU – the results show key differences in the responses of those from specific racial, ethnic and gender demographics. For instance, 84.4 percent of students, 80.8 percent of staff and 75 percent of faculty said they have never personally felt or experienced discrimination at SOU; but nearly half of the students who said they have experienced discrimination were either BIPOC (23.2 percent) or transgender/non-binary (22.8 percent). Among staff members, 27.5 percent of those who reported experiencing discrimination identified as BIPOC.

Even satisfaction with SOU’s overall climate for equity, diversity and inclusion was a mixed bag, with 57.9 percent of students and 58.8 percent of staff members – but just 40 percent of faculty members – saying they were either satisfied or very satisfied. Among students, 61.2 percent of women and 61 percent who  identified as White said they are satisfied or very satisfied, while 49.7 percent who identified as BIPOC answered the same way.

Perceptions of safety on campus vary significantly among demographic segments, with 53.1 percent of students saying they are never concerned for their physical safety, 43.3 percent saying they are sometimes concerned and 3.6 percent saying they are often concerned. The differences arise when responses are sorted by gender identity – 71.3 percent of transgender/non-binary students say they are sometimes concerned for their safety, compared to 26.4 percent of men and 44.6 percent of women.

Among Ashland residents – who make up 63 percent of the survey respondents – 77 percent overall and 63 percent who identify as BIPOC said they feel welcome.

The overall response rate for the survey was 26.23 percent – including 53.1 percent among staff members, 50 percent for faculty and 26 percent for students. SoundRocket indicated that the average nationwide response rate for this type of survey ranged from 15 to 30 percent.

SOU’s Office for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion already has begun addressing some of the areas in which the survey revealed differences for racial-, ethnic- and gender-specific demographic groups, including a sense of belonging to one or more campus communities, discriminatory experiences, feelings of safety and perceptions of fairness in compensation.

The EDI office is partnering with Human Resources to re-establish and expand faculty and staff gatherings that were previously known as BIPOC Luncheons, and also established three summer work groups from SOU’s Committee for Equity and Diversity to develop the “Inclusive Guide for Living and Working in the Rogue Valley” – an online handbook intended to ease newcomers’ transition into the region and assist in developing a sense of belonging and community.

Cooper held a series of meetings this summer with SOU’s academic division directors, and a plan is in the works to increase diversity in their program areas, beginning with diversity in their networks. The EDI office has also begun discussions with the offices of Outreach and Engagement, and Admissions, to help with tracking and maintaining relationships with participants from the university’s pipeline programs, with the goal of improving access to higher education among historically underrepresented students.

Developing the data is key and the Office for EDI is working on creating opportunities for those who are interested to give additional feedback on the findings. Look for additional information in the weeks to come.

Solar power production to be supported by state grant

SOU to expand solar power, move toward energy independence

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Southern Oregon University has been awarded a $1 million grant from the Oregon Department of Energy to expand solar power production on campus, in the next step toward its ambitious goal of becoming the first college or university in the U.S. to generate 100 percent of the electricity used on campus.

The award from ODE’s Community Renewable Energy Grant Program will add solar arrays to The Hawk Dining Commons and the Lithia Motors Pavilion/Student Recreation Center complex, and will pay for the installation of battery storage at the Hawk to support students, first responders and the broader community, if needed.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for SOU, and for our students and the Ashland community,” SOU President Rick Bailey said. “This grant supports our campus-wide efforts to expand sustainability as an integral part of our everyday operations. It also is a significant milestone in our entrepreneurial mission to reduce costs and broaden revenue, easing the financial burden on students and their families.”

Solar energy production is a key element of SOU’s innovative plan to develop new revenue streams and reduce dependence on the two traditional funding sources for public higher education nationwide – tuition and state funding. The proportions of funding from those two sources has flipped over the past 25 years in Oregon, from two-thirds state money and one-third tuition, to exactly the opposite.

Energy self-sufficiency will save SOU at least $700,000 per year in utility costs and President Bailey plans to expand the program from there, with additional solar installations that will enable the university to generate income by selling electricity to local utilities. He achieved that on a smaller scale at Northern New Mexico College, where he served as president before being hired at SOU in January.

SOU is also awaiting confirmation of a $2 million federal grant for its campus-wide solar build-out. Oregon’s U.S. senators, Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, have placed SOU’s request in the senate’s draft appropriations bill for the 2023 fiscal year, which is currently in a process known as “Congressionally Directed Spending.” The federal grant, if awarded, will pay for additional solar arrays on SOU’s parking lots and rooftops.

For the state grant that was awarded this week, SOU submitted its application in July for $1 million toward a project that will cost a total of $1.34 million. It is considered both a community renewable energy project and a community energy resilience project, under the definitions of ODE’s Community Renewable Energy Grant Program.

The program was created by the 2021 Legislature, which set aside $50 million for projects throughout the state over the next three years – with $12 million available in the 2022 funding cycle. The program – open to Oregon tribes, public bodies and consumer-owned utilities – drew a total of 56 applicants who submitted 68 applications, with 20 projects awarded grants in the program’s first round.

“These new solar projects at SOU will take our efforts to the next level,” SOU Sustainability Director Becs Walker said. “We are pursuing all viable opportunities to generate renewable energy on campus. This will help us financially as well as set us on the pathway to achieve carbon neutrality.  Our university is helping to lead the way for our community, region and the state of Oregon.”

SOU chose the Hawk Dining Commons and Lithia Motors Pavilion/Student Recreation Center projects for this year’s state funding based on site readiness, community resiliency and public welfare factors. SOU will continue to implement energy conservation and energy efficiency measures as it increases its solar.

The university currently has nine solar arrays on its Ashland campus with a total output of 455 kilowatts, plus an array at the Higher Education Center in Medford and a pole-mounted array installed last year by a nonprofit on land leased from SOU. The two new arrays supported by the state grant will increase SOU’s solar capacity by a total of 359 kilowatts.

SOU’s first solar array – a 6 kilowatt project with 24 solar panels – was installed on the Hannon Library in 2000. A total of five new arrays have been added in just the past three years, in projects funded through a combination of private investors, grants, the student body and the university. SOU’s Hawk Dining Hall & McLoughlin Residence Hall each have solar hot water systems installed to augment the natural gas domestic water heating, and the campus also has three net-zero buildings – they create as much or more energy than they use.

Solar energy production is one of four opportunities that SOU is currently pursuing in its effort to be more entrepreneurial in its approach to revenue generation. The university has also initiated a project to raze its vacant Cascade housing complex, which was completed in the early 1960s, and replace it with an innovative senior living facility that produces synergy between its residents and the university. Funding for the demolition has been approved by the state and is expected to begin in the next few months.

Other projects that will produce revenue or reduce expenses for SOU include the establishment of a University Business District in southeast Ashland – discussions are underway with the local business community – and replacement of its operational software with the cutting-edge Workday platform, which eventually will save the university about $750,000 per year in recurring costs.

The projects are part of an effort to “re-engineer” SOU’s financial structure, reducing expenses to better reflect current enrollment and academic interests, expanding revenue sources and positioning the university for strategic growth into the future.

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business after hours returns

Business After Hours for student opportunities

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More than 20 local employers will be on hand to talk with students about potential internships and career possibilities when the SOU business faculty and the Accounting Students’ Association host their annual Business After Hours event from 6 to 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 19, in the Stevenson Union’s Rogue River Room.

The networking event is intended as an opportunity for all interested SOU students to meet with representatives of local businesses and discuss opportunities that may be available to them. The get-together is free and will include a raffle and refreshments.

Interested students are encouraged to attend in business-casual attire, and to bring copies of their resume if they are looking for internships or jobs. The SOU Business Department faculty recommends that even those who are not yet ready to apply for jobs or internships should still attend, to practice networking skills and make valuable connections for the future.

Students who plan to attend should register ahead of time so that the organizers can print nametags.

The Business After Hours meeting is sponsored by Lithia Motors & Driveway, and Moss Adams, LLP. Other businesses and organizations that will be represented at the event include Valley Immediate Care; David Willingham – Primerica; Knife River; John Warekois CPA LLC; Dawson CPA; Nagel & Padilla LLC; Rogue Credit Union; KDP CPA, LLP; SOU Alumni Relations; Ashland Partners & Company LLP; Ashland Hills Hotel & Suites; Boise Cascade; Neuman Hotel Group; ScienceWorks Hands-on Museum; Providence Medford Medical Center; WorkSource Rogue – Oregon Employment Department; Ashland Hills Hotel; Rogue Community Health; Rogue Valley SHRM; AGT CPAs & Advisors; Functional Botanicals, LLC; SMART Reading; Liberty Tax Service; Ashland Insurance; Sister River Foods; Compass Hotel by Margaritaville; Riechensperger CPA; and Jackson County.

This year’s event will be the first since before the COVID-19 pandemic. It is the signature annual project of the Accounting Students Association, which provides support, networking opportunities and leadership experience to accounting students. The club helps prepare students for the transition from school to ther careers by establishing relationships with local businesses, hosting guest speakers and touring accounting offices. It also runs the accounting tutoring program.

Those with questions about the Business After Hours event should contact accounting faculty member and club advisor Sara Adams, at adamss3@sou.edu.

McNair Scholars program accepting nominations

McNair Scholars: Nominate potential grad students

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There is a reason why the coordinators of SOU’s McNair Scholars Program reach out to faculty members at about this time each year, seeking nominations of promising students to fill out the university’s next cohort of potential graduate school candidates. Most participants since the McNair program began at SOU in 2003 have stood out in the classroom and been steered by their professors toward the U.S. Department of Education program.

“If you know any undergraduate students … who you think may have academic potential and may want to go on to attend graduate school after completing a bachelor’s degree, please mention the program to the student and/or send an email to McNair@sou.edu to nominate that student to the SOU McNair Scholars Program,” said Naomi McCreary, coordinator of the SOU program.

Nomination emails should include the student’s name and email address. Students can be from any academic major, must have completed at least two terms of college and can enter the program as sophomores, juniors or early in their senior years. McCreary described McNair as “a specialized graduate school preparatory program of activities and instruction that the participants engage in over a minimum of a calendar year.”

The SOU program offers one-on-one guidance from faculty mentors as it helps participants complete their undergraduate degrees, enroll in graduate school and prepare for doctoral studies. Scholars complete an eight-week research internship in the summer, attend weekly seminars to help prepare them for testing and graduate school applications, and travel to national McNair conferences and graduate program visitations.

The program is named for Dr. Ronald E. McNair, who was a member of the Challenger space shuttle’s seven-person crew that met a tragic end in a 1986 explosion. As a tribute to his achievements, Congress and the McNair family in 1989 aformed the Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program – administered by the U.S. Department of Education – to assist young people in both following McNair’s path and taking the initiative to chart their own courses.

The grant helps underrepresented and first-generation undergraduate students from low-income backgrounds to prepare for research-intensive doctoral programs. However, McCreary urged faculty members to nominate any students they feel may have the ability and desire to complete graduate school, and eligibility will be sorted out during the application process.

The McNair program at SOU received word in August that it has been renewed by the Department of Education for a new, five-year grant cycle. The SOU program has provided an intensive research experience and graduate school preparation to more than 160 students since its inception in 2003. Under the new grant, 28 students each year will share the prestige of being McNair Scholars.

SOU Native American Studies receives grant from Banyan Botanicals

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Dragonfly’s Garden, located in Southern Oregon University’s community garden and a project of the Native American Studies Program, has been awarded a grant for $3,000 from Banyan Botanicals – a product and lifestyle company that focuses on the Ayurvedic alternative medicine system that is common in India and Nepal. Banyan Botanicals’ mission is to help people achieve health and well-being.

Banyan Botanicals grant will support hiring T Tschantre The NAS program will use the grant from Banyan to hire SOU alumna T Tschantre, who is of Tewa descent, to support participation in growth of Dragonfly’s Garden and to tend the plot with student intern Alanis Baldy, a citizen of the Hoopa Valley Tribe.

“Students in the Native American Studies Program at Southern Oregon University are deeply committed to sustainable food systems, cultivation of Indigenous first foods and food sovereignty,” said Brook Colley, Ph.D., chair of the NAS program.

“Many have limited opportunities to grow their food and to practice the cultivation of culturally important medicinal plants,” she said, “However, this garden gives students a safe place to learn these skills and be supported in their exploration and learning.”

NAS students attempted to start a student garden project for many years, but were plagued by challenges including a lack of resources to pay student workers, the COVID-19 pandemic and catastrophic Rogue Valley wildfires.

SOU junior Amanda Rose enrolled in Colley’s spring 2021 Native American Ecological Knowledge course, in which she learned about “three sisters” gardening – a system of companion planting in which three plants are grown symbiotically. She and seven other students initiated a group project using the dynamic polyculture system at The Farm at SOU, and ultimately harvested more than 200 ears of sweet corn and 200 squash, of four varieties. The produce was shared with the NAS program, Native students and local Native community members.

Banyan Botanicals grant will support student worker Alanis BaldyBaldy and other NAS students were inspired by the success of Rose’s three sisters garden, and mobilized to use the technique on a garden plot – which would become known as Dragonfly’s Garden – in the SOU Community Garden. The community garden is a student-run organic cooperative at the corner of South Mountain Avenue and Henry Street.

“Dragonfly’s Garden helps keep me connected to my culture and allows me to accomplish my goal of giving back to Indigenous communities,” said Baldy, who grew up on her tribe’s reservation in northern California  – a culturally enriched environment that taught her of responsibilities to the land.

Tschantre considers the grant-supported role at the garden to be a means of using knowledge to be of service to the community. Tschantre, reconnecting with Native roots, said that learning about Native first foods, plants and land restoration is an important part of a personal journey.

“I’m interested in learning how to use methods of companion planting to create healthy habitats using herbs, flowers and vegetables in other annual and perennial gardens,” Tschantre said.

Dragonfly’s Garden is now dedicated to growing student knowledge of Indigenous first foods and companion planting. Students have learned that the system improves pollination, controls pests, provides a habitat for beneficial insects and improves harvests.

“We are very thankful to Banyan Botanicals and our other partners who support these cultural and educational efforts.” said Colley, the NAS chair.

Additional support for Dragonfly’s Garden and the three sisters garden has come from Siskiyou Seeds, which donated seeds for both gardens, and the Traditional Ecological Inquiry Program, which provided camas bulbs, wild onion bulbs and bitterroot for the project. Donations to support Dragonfly’s Garden and other projects of the SOU Native American Studies program can be made online.

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Indigenous Peoples Day returns to SOU

SOU commemoration of Indigenous Peoples Day returns as in-person event

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(Ashland, Ore.) — The annual Indigenous Peoples Day celebration at Southern Oregon University is returning as an in-person event on Monday, Oct. 10. Indigenous Peoples Day amplifies Indigenous voices and celebrates the historic, cultural and contemporary presence of Indigenous peoples and Tribal Nations, who have persevered in the protection of Indigenous rights and cultural sovereignty, and continue to make significant contributions to the world.

SOU’s president announced in 2016 that the university would observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day after alumna Lupe Sims, a descendant of the White Mountain Apache Tribe, partnered with the university’s Diversity and Inclusion Oversight Committee to petition for recognition of Indigenous sovereignty. Formal observation by SOU was declared in June 2017, and  the Ashland City Council voted two months later to follow suit.

This year’s celebration – the fifth official observation of Indigenous Peoples’ day by SOU and the city of Ashland – will begin at 11 a.m. with a salmon bake in SOU’s Stevenson Union Courtyard (plates are $8, no charge for Elders). Sims, who is coordinating this year’s celebration, will deliver opening acknowledgements, followed by an honor song by host drum Screaming Eagle (the Jackson family of Klamath Falls), who were present at the first formal Indigenous Peoples Day event in 2017.

David West, a citizen of Potawatomi Nation and director emeritus of the Native American Studies department at SOU, will deliver the opening prayer, and SOU Provost Susan Walsh will read a Land Acknowledgment. SOU President Rick Bailey and SOU professor and former Ashland City Councilor Dennis Slattery will read declarations on behalf of SOU and the city of Ashland. Musician, traditional dancer and SOU Native Nations Liaison Brent Florendo (Wasco Band of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs) – will honor those recognitions with a hand drum song and will lead a community round dance.

The day’s events will continue with Indigenous advocacy at 12:30 p.m. in the Stevenson Union’s Rogue River Room, led by Tribal citizens including Elder and traditional ecologist and practitioner Joe Scott (Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians and Takelma); Dan Wahpepah (Anishinabe, Kickapoo, and Sac and Fox); Rowena Jackson (Klamath Tribes); Chauncey Peltier, (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and Fort Totten Sioux); and Antonio Bonilla (Afro-Taino). Tribal Elders West and Ed Little Crow (Lakota and Dakota) will hold an Elder discussion that is open to the community. Elder Mark Colson (Chehalis, Yurok and Dakota) will speak about Indigeneity and healing within Indian country in the present. Michele Pavilonis, of Lenape descent, will lead a Medicine Wheel Healing Support Group – a talking circle for finding and keeping balance – during the day’s events on SOU campus. The support group will be held in honor of breath and heartbeat.

SOU student-driven initiatives during this event include a formal recognition of the nine federally recognized Oregon Tribes and the continuing relationship between SOU and Indian country. That recognition will be in preparation for a permanent display and dedication of the flags of the nine Tribal Nations at a central location on campus in the upcoming year.

The Shasta Takelma Learning Garden working group, which is part of a larger Indigenous Gardens Network – a hub for Indigenous-led land projects centering on First Foods, land stewardship, educational opportunities and habitat restoration – will share about their place-making collaboration with the Siletz Tribes and Grand Ronde Tribes.

The student-led projects represent progress that has been made in the past five years toward SOU honoring the stewardship of Indigenous cultural sovereignty. Everyone is welcome and will have the opportunity to gather in community, and stand in solidarity, with Indian country and Native/Indigenous peoples. This is as drug- and alcohol-free event.

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SOPride parade this weekend

March with SOU at SOPride

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The annual SOPride celebration and parade returns to Ashland this weekend, Oct. 7 to 9, following a two-year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic. Southern Oregon University and the Social Justice and Equity Center invite all SOU students, staff, faculty and their families to march together in the SOU parade entry.

Showing up for queer and trans students, employees, and community members is a longstanding campus tradition, and SOU typically has one of the largest entries in the parade. The SOPride parade starts at noon on Saturday, and will proceed from Union Street, across from Safeway, through downtown Ashland and the Plaza, culminating at the Lithia Park bandshell for the SOPride Festival.

Those who wish to march with SOU can meet at the Stevenson Union courtyard at 9:30 a.m., leaving SOU by 10 a.m. to walk to the parade start – or meet up at the parade start on Union Street at 11 a.m.

SOU’s Social Justice and Equity Center is hosting a sign-making and decorating event from 12:30 to 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 7, in Room 308 of the Stevenson Union. Drop by during that time and make a sign or two for yourself or others to show your pride! Pizza, snacks and sign-making supplies will be provided.

For more information or to request mobility support to participate in SOU’s parade entry, please visit tinyurl.com/sousopride.

SOPride 2022 kicks off with a SOPride Crawl beginning at 7 p.m. on Friday and running all weekend. Participating queer-friendly businesses will host Pride-themed events including music, karaoke, drag shows and cabaret.

SOPride was founded in 2009 by Ashland City Councilor Gina DuQuenne. SOPride hosts the southern Oregon celebration in October, in recognition of National Coming Out Day – an annual celebration on Oct. 11. The first annual Ashland SOPride was held on Oct. 10, 2010, with over 500 participants in the march and hundreds more enjoying from the sidewalks. SOPride continues to celebrate the magnificent diversity of the southern Oregon community and has an outstanding leadership team that is composed of many SOU student leaders.

For more information about SOPride and all of the events during SOPride weekend, visit sopride.org.