SOU Campus News

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 […]

solar arrays installed at The Farm at SOU

Solar arrays pop up at The Farm at SOU

(Ashland, Ore.) — The Farm at SOU is sprouting solar arrays this month, with two new and innovative projects taking shape over the past week. The first, mounted on The Farm’s storage building, is student-funded and the second, installed atop 20-foot poles, was financed by a private investor. “It is a coincidence that these projects […]

Water conservation zones at SOU are in response to an ongoing drought

SOU water conservation brings brown lawns, drought-tolerant plantings

Several areas of the usually lush 175-acre SOU campus have dried up this summer – intentionally, rather than through neglect. Those areas have been designated as water conservation areas in response to the region’s ongoing drought and the university is monitoring them for potential fire hazards. Signs that identify many of the water conservation areas […]