SOU plans forums to kick off facilities master plan

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Southern Oregon University’s 10-year update to its Campus Facilities Master Plan is underway, and the university is seeking input from both campus and the community before the plan goes before the Ashland City Council for final approval next spring. The first two opportunities are introductory gallery and open house master plan forums – on Oct. 3 for students and SOU employees, and on Oct. 10 for members of the Ashland community.

The Campus Facilities Master Plan, when completed by the university and approved by the city council, will serve as a guide to development at SOU from 2025 through 2035. It will replace the current master plan, which was created in 2009 and was intended to steer the evolution of SOU’s campus from 2010 through 2020.

“The master plan is intended to describe how we expect SOU’s physical growth and needs to progress over the next 10 years,” said Joe Mosley, SOU’s director of communications. “It’s more of a long-range satellite image than a detailed roadmap, but it will give our campus community, neighbors and partners in city government a basic picture of how we expect our footprint and facilities to change during the coming decade.”

The first forum, for members of the campus community, will be from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 3, in the ASSOU Lounge at SOU’s Stevenson Union building. It will include a summary of work that is underway and planned, and the opportunity for participants to give input about how the university’s buildings and grounds should grow or change.

The second forum, for community members from Ashland and the Rogue Valley, will be from 4 to 7 p.m. on Oct. 10, also in the Stevenson Union’s ASSOU Lounge. It will offer a similar outline of work that is in progress and opportunities to provide feedback.

Those who attend either of the forums will be able to view maps that show all buildings currently on SOU’s 175-acre campus and also facilities that are expected to be added in the coming years. Coming developments that are expected to be on the final version of the updated master plan include projects that are currently in planning – such as a senior living facility that will replace the Cascade housing complex – and other proposals for renovation or new construction.

Projects included in the plan should align with SOU’s mission and meet the needs of students, the southern Oregon region and the state. The master plan will not be a “wish list,” and its proposals will reflect the university’s financial realities

The master plan will not preclude other projects from being pursued over the next 10 years; many recent changes to the SOU campus have occurred that were not included in the 2010 master plan.

Campus and community members will have additional chances to hear about and weigh in on the master plan when it goes to the Ashland Planning Commission for study sessions next spring, and to the City Council in May for final approval. Interested parties will be invited to hear about the plan and to submit comments, questions and concerns.

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Sister institutions SOU and Universidad de Guanajuato renewed their collaborative relationship

SOU and Mexican sister institution establish new agreement

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(Ashland, Ore.) — The leaders of Southern Oregon University and its Mexican sister institution, the Universidad de Guanajuato, officially renewed the schools’ 55-year relationship on Wednesday by pledging in a new memorandum of understanding to “strengthen institutional collaboration in the areas of teaching, research and extension.”

The new agreement – which builds upon a commitment the two universities made to each other during their 50th anniversary celebration in 2019 – was reached as a delegation from SOU visited Guanajuato this week. The memorandum was signed by SOU President Rick Bailey and UG Rector General Claudia Susana Gómez López, whose position is equivalent to that of the president at a U.S. university.

“All of us at Southern Oregon University are grateful to President Claudia Susana Gómez López and her wonderful team at the University of Guanajuato for celebrating and continuing this beautiful 55-year partnership,” President Bailey said. “We look forward to even more opportunities for our students, faculty and staff to collaborate in a spirit of friendship, partnership and love.”

More than 1,000 students, faculty members and others have participated in a variety of exchange programs between the two universities and the cities of Ashland and Guanajuato, which are sister cities.

The cooperative link between the two cities and the two universities is unique. Guanajuato is closer in size to Eugene than to Ashland, and Universidad de Guanajuato – which is larger than any university in Oregon – has sister university relationships with more than 300 other institutions worldwide. But the Ashland-Guanajuato relationships – between both the cities and universities – were the first for each entity.

Some families from the Mexican city have been involved in the relationships with Ashland and SOU for three generations, and more than 80 marriages have united partners from Ashland and Guanajuato.

The new memorandum of understanding commits the two universities to maintain a close working relationship:

“Universidad de Guanajuato and Southern Oregon University express their intention to strengthen institutional collaboration in the areas of teaching, research and extension, through activities or projects that will be formalized by specific agreements, within the framework of the attributions conferred by their regulations.”

Contingents of academic and administrative leaders of the two universities regularly visit the other’s campus, and collaborative programs benefit the students of each. One current example is the Global Innovation Scholars program – a collaboration on multicultural business development that grew out of an initiative from the U.S. Department of State. The program, which began in 2022, includes online coursework for participating students from the two schools during each year’s winter and spring terms, and a visit to each other’s communities to assess and create development plans for local businesses or organizations.

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Grant awarded for additional SOU solar projects

SOU receives third $1 million state grant for solar arrays

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(Ashland, Ore.) — The solar energy aspirations at Southern Oregon University have received another jolt, with news that the Oregon Department of Energy has approved a third round of state funding for SOU’s push to become the nation’s first public university to generate all of the daytime electricity that it uses. The latest $1 million grant will be used to install a battery storage bank at SOU’s Computer Science Building and a solar array in a nearby parking lot.

The university has now received a $1 million grant in each of the most recent three years from the state Department of Energy’s Community Renewable Energy Grant Program, along with a $2 million appropriation from Congress in December 2022. Part of the federal appropriation will likely be used to complete funding for the Computer Science Building projects, which will cost a total of $1.3 million.

“We are excited about these opportunities to further diversify SOU’s revenue, and to increase our on campus renewable energy and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions,” said Becs Walker, the university’s director of sustainability. “We also recognize the importance of energy efficiency, and are monitoring all buildings to identify potential improvements. A recent renovation project on Britt Hall improved our energy efficiency across campus.”

This year’s funding process for the Community Renewable Energy Grant Program was especially competitive, with the state selecting 34 of 75 applicants to receive a total of almost $18 million in grants. The program is intended to support planning and construction of renewable energy or energy resiliency projects for Tribes, public bodies and consumer-owned utilities.

SOU is currently working on solar projects – funded by the earlier grant, appropriations and $51,000 from the Associated Students of SOU’s Green Fund – at Lithia Motors Pavilion and The Hawk Dining Commons that will increase the university’s photovoltaic output from the current 455 kilowatts (kW) to a total of 848 kilowatts. The first project has added a 241 kW solar array to the 63 kW solar array already on the athletic pavilion’s roof, making it the largest rooftop solar array in Ashland. The second project, at The Hawk Dining Commons, is a solar array and battery storage bank that will enable SOU to support community resilience by providing power at The Hawk, if needed, in the event of an emergency.

SOU’s first solar canopy in a parking lot will be funded with money from the state Department of Energy’s second round of grants and the congressional appropriation. The first parking lot array will add 340 kilowatts of generating capacity, and SOU will be able to produce about 17% of the daytime electricity it uses when all three current projects are completed. That amount will increase when the Computer Science Building projects are also built out.

SOU has nine existing solar arrays, plus one at the Higher Education Center in Medford and a pole-mounted array installed in 2022 by a nonprofit on land leased from the university. SOU has added five arrays over the past four years, with funding from private investors, grants, the student government and university administration.

The university anticipates generating 100% of its own electricity by 2033, and is already planning for its next rounds of solar expansion. SOU is focused on being entrepreneurial in its approaches to revenue generation, and on energy independence and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Its eventual energy independence will save the university at least $750,000 per year in utility costs, and each solar array that comes on-line results in an incremental reduction of the overall energy bill for campus.

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Donation to Student Food Pantry from Amy's Kitchen

Soup’s on, following donation to Student Food Pantry

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Organic food company Amy’s Kitchen, which operates a manufacturing plant in nearby White City, has made one of the largest-ever donations to Southern Oregon University’s Student Food Pantry – a total of 1,200 cans of vegan soup.

The donated food – 50 cases each of Amy’s Indian Golden Lentil and Alphabet soup – will be added to the food pantry’s inventory throughout the 2024-25 academic year. Each case of the soup contains 12 cans.

“The soup will be fed in (to the pantry’s shelves) gradually, to meet the demand of the students,” said Jason Piazza, benefits navigator for the SOU Dean of Students Office. “We will go through it before the end of the academic year.”

Piazza said discussions with Amy’s Kitchen have included the likelihood of future food donations. The Petaluma, California-based company has donated more than 300,000 pounds of organic food to at least 17 food banks and other organizations – including SOU and two other universities – so far in 2024.

“We’re proud to have partnered with incredible organizations across North America to address food insecurity for communities in need,” the company posted recently on its social media channels, pointing out that September is celebrated as both Organic Month and Hunger Action Month.

Amy’s Kitchen remains a family-owned business, founded in 1987 by Andy and Rachel Berliner and named for their daughter, Amy. The company has processing plants in White City; Santa Rosa, California; and Pocatello, Idaho; making more than 250 organic, vegan or vegetarian products.

The SOU Student Food Pantry provides food and other necessities to students in need. First-time clients must fill out an intake form and provide their student ID numbers, then can stop by the pantry at Room 312 of the Stevenson Union to receive as many as 10 non-perishable food items, occasional perishable food items and unlimited personal hygiene products each week, as long as they are enrolled at SOU. Those with questions can email the food pantry at foodpantry@sou.edu. The pantry is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

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SOU's Kelly Szott awarded post-doc fellowship

SOU faculty member earns research fellowship on substance abuse

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Kelly Szott, an associate professor of sociology at Southern Oregon University, has been awarded a post-doctoral fellowship at New York University’s Rory Meyers College of Nursing to study drug use and addiction issues during her sabbatical year at SOU. The fellowship is funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Her 12-month fellowship through NYU’s Behavioral Sciences Training in Substance Abuse Research program began June 30 and will be her first step in studying the effects of climate change on drug use, drug markets and treatment.

“My main aim with this fellowship is to work toward developing a grant proposal for a research project that examines the impacts of climate instability (including wildfires, drought and smoke) on drug use risks, such as overdose,” Szott said.

She is one of 16 pre- and post-doctoral researchers from around the country who were awarded fellowships in the NYU program to study a variety of drug use and abuse issues ranging from drugs among college students to politics in drug policy. The fellows meet each Monday to collaboratively review their work, listen to speakers and participate in training.

The Behavioral Sciences Training in Drug Abuse Research program at NYU has been funded by the NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse since 1984, making it the largest and oldest such training program. It awards fellowships to researchers from a variety of academic disciplines, including public health, social work, psychology, criminal justice, sociology and nursing.

Szott is a medical sociologist who uses qualitative methods to study drug use and harm-reduction responses. She received her bachelor’s degree in social science from the University of Michigan, and her master’s degree and Ph.D. in sociology from Syracuse University.

Her past research has focused on fentanyl use and harm-reduction responses in rural contexts. Her more recent research has examined wildfire’s impacts on the health and social support networks of rural, older adults – which she is now expanding to the impacts of climate crisis events on drug use. Szott’s research has appeared in publications including the monthly International Journal of Drug Policy, and the Critical Public Health and Human Organization quarterly journals.

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