SOU approaches COVID as endemic

SOU shifts to endemic approach on COVID-19

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Southern Oregon University announced this week that its COVID-19 policies will shift from a pandemic footing to an endemic approach, emphasizing safety and caution as changes are made in practices such as masking, quarantines and restrictions on campus visitors.

Masks will not be required either indoors or outdoors at SOU beginning March 19, the day after winter term ends, but those who prefer to wear masks for their own safety are welcomed and encouraged to do so. President Rick Bailey told students and employees in a campus message on Monday that N95 masks will continue to be made available for their use in most campus buildings.

“As you know, Southern Oregon University has been a role model in the way we have fought to keep each other safe and healthy despite the challenges of the pandemic,” Bailey said. “We recognize that COVID may not disappear anytime soon, but we feel we can safely return to largely normal operations by exercising caution and following the advice and recommendations of scientific and public health experts.”

SOU’s vaccination policy will remain in effect – students and employees are still required to attest that they have received all CDC-recommended COVID vaccines and boosters, or that they have been granted medical, religious or other exemptions. New students will be required to attest that they are fully vaccinated or apply for exemptions. Compliance with the policy will be monitored by randomly selecting students to show proof of their vaccination status.

The most significant change to the vaccination policy is that guests and visitors to campus for indoor or outdoor events will no longer be required to show proof of their status. Mandatory weekly testing for students or employees who have been granted exemptions under SOU’s vaccination policy will be discontinued as of March 12, and the isolation period for those who test positive for COVID-19 will be reduced to five days, from the 10 days now required, bringing SOU in line with current recommendations from the CDC.

President Bailey pointed out in Monday’s announcement that all changes to the university’s policies “may be subject to further revision depending on evolving conditions.” The latest modifications were recommended by the university’s COVID-19 Advisory Committee, with input from local, state and federal health authorities.

“The guiding principle of that group, and of our university, is that the health and safety of students, employees and community members will always be our highest priority,” Bailey said.

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SOU prepares for transformational change to software infrastructure

SOU to begin “transformational” shift in tech infrastructure

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Southern Oregon University is heading into the first stages of a transformational change to its primary operational software that will result in far-reaching improvements for both students and employees.

Students will see streamlined registration options, an adaptable academic planner, and an integrated and effective mobile app. Employees will juggle fewer systems and see modernized workflows with increased automation, improved analytics and better security.

The university recently completed an assessment of Banner, its core information system, and will move to Workday. The SOU Board of Trustees approved this transition last month, and the university will begin shifting its systems this summer, with full implementation expected to take several years.

SOU’s current contract for Banner’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Student Information System (SIS) will expire in late 2024. The university’s goal is to begin the shift to Workday by July of this year, with new modules for human resources, payroll and finance fully implemented one year later. The shift to Workday’s student module will then begin, with that implementation schedule expected to take another two years.

The transformation will affect how students register for and view courses. Workday will be their primary platform to create academic plans, manage financial aid and perform other necessary functions throughout their academic careers. Many of those functions will be accessible via Workday’s comprehensive mobile app.

Workday will become the main application for managing employee information and benefits, along with institutional functions such as accounting, budgeting and finance. It will become the primary portal through which the registrar will schedule and manage courses, and where faculty members and advisors will view and edit students’ transcripts and course progress.

SOU will vet and hire an implementation firm within the next month or two to help manage and guide the university through the lengthy and complex process.

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February food drive time at SOU

It’s February – food drive time at SOU

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It’s February, and at Southern Oregon University that means it’s time to support students who may have issues with food insecurity. President Rick Bailey recently appealed to SOU employees to donate this month during the Governor’s State Employee Food Drive, in which all food and funds gathered at SOU support the Student Food Pantry’s operations throughout the year.

SOU employees, alumni, families of students and community members all contribute generously to the annual food and fundraiser, demonstrating that the SOU community cares deeply about eliminating student hunger on campus.

The Student Food Pantry is an important resource for many SOU students. In the 2020-21 academic year, while classes were entirely remote, 113 individual students were served by the SOU Food Pantry.

“I use the Food Pantry once a week,” one student said in a survey last year of Food Pantry users. “The pick-up process is so easy that it makes getting supplemental food not scary or embarrassing.

“I have been able to focus more on my school work since I have been using the food pantry, as I no longer have to worry about having enough to eat to sustain me during the week.”

There are three ways to participate in this year’s food drive:

Donate Money: Anyone can make a one-time donation by visiting https://giving.sou.edu/food-pantry/. SOU employees are able to sign up for a monthly payroll contribution to provide ongoing support for the SOU Student Food Pantry. Donations of any size are appreciated. Employees are encouraged to take the “Governor’s Challenge” to donate $12 per month, or $144 for the year.

Fill-the-Bin Building Competition: Each SOU building has a collection bin for donating non-perishable food items. Red “food drive” bags are available at the bins, and employees should be on the lookout for detailed instructions in their campus mailbox. The building with the largest donation, by weight, wins the competition. Barrels will be collected and weighed on Friday Feb. 25.

Attend the Food Pantry Benefit Concert: Join SOU Music students for their free, annual fundraising event at the SOU Music Recital Hall at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 8. SOU students collaborate and produce this free community concert with the goal of raising awareness of college student hunger needs. Admission is FREE with either a monetary or non-perishable food donation – all to benefit the SOU Student Food Pantry. Click here for more information.

The Student Food Pantry is one of many resources available to students facing financial difficulties. Any student facing food insecurity or a financial emergency is encouraged to first file an SOU Cares Note and someone from the Office of the Dean of Students can help access various financial and other assistance. In addition, the Basic Needs Resources website has a comprehensive list of other available resources. These include information about virtual assistance for students with a representative from the Oregon Department of Human Services, setting up an appointment with SOU’s new Campus Benefits Navigation Manager, SNAP benefits eligibility, and listings of rental, utility, transit, internet, food and other assistance options.

In addition to the formal resources available at SOU, there are many other ways the SOU community helps support and resource students facing financial difficulties. From staff and faculty stocking informal “snack stations” in various campus buildings, to advisors and employees submitting Cares Notes and referring students to resources, the SOU community cares about eliminating student hunger.

For more information and details on the February Food Drive please visit www.sou.edu/fooddrive.

Native American Program

SOU Native American Program to co-host vaccination clinics

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Southern Oregon University’s Native American Program is partnering with the local Natives of One Wind Indigenous Alliance to offer free COVID-19 vaccination clinics in February and March for anyone 5 years of age or older, and currently eligible for shots or boosters. There will even be free dinners for participants.

The clinics will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. this Friday, Feb. 11, and again on Friday, March 11, in Parking Lot 36, across South Mountain Avenue from the SOU Music Building.

Each clinic will offer vaccinations and boosters from Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, supplied by the Oregon Health Authority. Dinners at this month’s event will be from the Tacos de Volada Food Truck, and paid for by the OHA and other involved organizations.

The vaccination project came together after the OHA reached out to SOU’s Native American Programs – which includes the Native American Studies program, Native American Student Union, Native Nation Liaison, Native American Advisory Council, Collins Collection, First Nations Collection and Konaway Nika Tillicum. Native American Programs then partnered with the Natives of One Wind Indigenous Alliance, which is itself a collaboration of the Red Earth Descendants and the UNETE Center for Farm Worker Advocacy.

Vaccines will be available for SOU students, employees and community members – anyone eligible for vaccination or booster shots. The free dinners are intended as a means of encouraging vaccination and reaching underserved populations with health information.

Those with questions about the clinics can contact Brook Colley, chair of SOU’s Native American Studies program, at colleyb@sou.edu.

Late wrestling coach leaves $3 million to SOU

Late wrestling coach leaves largest-ever gift to SOU

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Legendary Southern Oregon University wrestling coach Bob Riehm’s influence at SOU and within the wrestling program will continue in perpetuity, with a $3 million donation from his estate announced today that ranks as the largest-ever single gift to the university.

The bequest was announced by the university and his surviving sisters at a celebration of life held earlier today for Riehm, who passed away in November 2020. A third of the gift will endow the men’s wrestling head coach position at SOU, which will be named for Riehm, and two-thirds will fund scholarships for the team’s wrestlers.

“Bob Riehm inspired excellence from his student-athletes during his hall of fame career,” said SOU President Rick Bailey. “He was an exceptional leader, coach and mentor, and we are honored to celebrate his legacy today and into the future.”

Riehm, who died at age 83, coached the school’s wrestling program for 25 years beginning in 1969, winning three national championships and mentoring 100 NAIA All-Americans. He compiled a 270-71-2 career record and has been inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame, the Oregon Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and the SOU Sports Hall of Fame.

“As a coach and mentor, Coach Riehm made an immeasurable impact on the lives of so many student-athletes who came through his program,” SOU Athletic Director Matt Sayre said. “His legacy, first and foremost, will always be that. This gift’s significance is an enduring reminder of his commitment to SOU, the sport of wrestling, our student-athletes and coaches. He will continue to be a positive and tangible contributor to the development of them all.”

Riehm’s first Southern Oregon team went 7-7 in dual matches, but his Raiders teams never again came close to a losing record. His ninth season, in 1977-78, brought the school’s first-ever national title. His team won another title five years later, in an undefeated season capped by back-to-back wins over the University of Oregon and Oregon State University. His team won a third NAIA championship in the 1993-94 season, his last as head coach.

The gymnasium inside SOU’s former McNeal Pavilion was named Bob Riehm Arena in 2011, at the conclusion of a fund drive in his honor that raised more than $100,000 for scholarships and equipment. Riehm Arena, now in Lithia Motors Pavilion, continues to serve as the center of competition for the university’s men’s and women’s wrestling teams.

Riehm was born in Britt, Iowa, and wrestled at the University of Iowa, where he graduated in 1960.

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Grant will fund the Indigenous Gardens Network

Indigenous Gardens Network again receives Oregon Cultural Trust grant

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(Ashland, Ore.) —  Southern Oregon University, tribal partners and others have received a $30,154 grant from the Oregon Cultural Trust to continue the work of the Indigenous Gardens Network – a hub for Indigenous-led land projects centering on food sovereignty, land stewardship, educational opportunities and habitat restoration.

The purpose of the Indigenous Gardens Network is to provide accessibility to land and “first foods” for tribal communities. First foods are plant and animal species that Native Americans traditionally relied upon for subsistence, medicine and ceremonial uses. The network consists of a tribal steering committee and working groups with citizens of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. Their Indigenous knowledge and expertise of cultivation, harvesting and stewardship inform and direct each project that the network takes on.

Projects from the past year included listening sessions on barriers to land accessibility for tribal people, planning meetings, site visits, the creation of working groups, an online Acorn Camp, a First Food Stewardship planning project at Vesper Meadow, development of a Shasta/Takelma Learning Garden at SOU and the purchase of acorn processing equipment and camas restoration tools.

“The Oregon Cultural Trust grant will enable the continuation of projects and initiatives that uplift Indigenous food sovereignty and kinship practices, and that center ceremony, Indigenous storytelling and creativity,” said Joe Scott (Siletz), IGN member and curriculum director for the Traditional Ecological Inquiry Program. “These projects also confront threats to the larger community by supporting traditional tending practices that reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire, mitigate the impacts of climate change and help provide clean water.”

“Ever since our people were marched from the Rogue Valley at the end of the Rogue River Wars to the Siletz Reservation in 1856 and 1857, our people have suffered from loss of close connection to those homelands, the comfort, foods and sense of belonging that they provided our people for millennia,“ said Robert Kentta (Shasta & Dakubetede ancestry), cultural resources director and Tribal Council member for the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians.

“We very much appreciate the IGN Partnership with SOU and the Grand Ronde Tribe, and the incredible support from land managing agencies, and NGOs, and the funders like Oregon Cultural Trust, who make this re-connection and cultural restoration possible,” Kentta said.

“We are grateful for the continued support of the Oregon Cultural Trust for the collaborative work between the Siletz and Grand Ronde tribes and our many partners, including SOU, Vesper Meadows, BLM and so many others,” said Greg Archuleta (Clackamas Chinook, Santiam Kalapuya, Shasta ancestry), artist and educator, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. “The funding support will enable our Tribal members to connect to and help restore our ancestral lands for access to traditional first foods and important cultural sites.”

The Indigenous Gardens Network is also supported through the SOU Foundation. Those wishing to contribute to this work can make a donation through the SOU Foundation or contact Brook Colley (colleyb@sou.edu) for more information about the Indigenous Gardens Network. Information on donating to the Oregon Cultural Trust is available on the organization’s website.

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JPR's online silent auction is underway

Jefferson Public Radio launches first virtual silent auction fundraiser

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Jefferson Public Radio is inviting the Southern Oregon University community and others to participate in its first JPR Online Silent Auction, featuring a variety of getaway packages, wine bundles, one-of-a-kind items, fine dining certificates and more.

“JPR is grateful to everyone who has contributed and is participating in this new exciting venture,” said Sue Jaffe, one of the organizers for the auction. “Our ultimate goal is to raise $20,000 by Feb. 4. Thanks to the generosity and creativity of our local donors and community partners, we are offering hundreds of fun items to bid on.”

The JPR Virtual Online Auction opened Jan. 24 and runs through Feb. 4, with  almost $14,000 already raised. Supporters of SOU’s National Public Radio affiliate are encouraged to raise a glass or raise a bid, and help raise    funds to support the JPR programs they love.

More than 50 businesses and individuals – from The Websters knitting supplies to Rogue Creamery to the Mt. Ashland ski area – have donated items, services and opportunities that can be bid on in the silent, online auction. There are about a dozen prizes from wineries and breweries, and another dozen from restaurants.

Jefferson Public Radio, now one of the country’s largest regional public radio networks, began at SOU in 1969 with the station KSOR – which remains the network’s flagship. JPR is owned and operated by SOU and supported by the fundraising efforts of the JPR Foundation. It broadcasts to a potential audience of more than a million people in southern Oregon and northern California with its network of translators and stations.

JPR operates from its studios adjacent to the SOU Theater Building on the southwest edge of campus.

geriatrician to speak at SOU

Leading geriatrician to address SOU audience

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Dr. Louise Aronson – a leading geriatrician, writer and educator – will lecture on “Aging, Ageism and the Future of Elderhood” in a Jan. 10 event presented via Zoom by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Southern Oregon University in partnership with SOU’s Office for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.

Aronson is the author of the New York Times bestseller and Pulitzer Prize finalist “Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine and Reimagining Life.” Her SOU lecture will begin at 3 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 10, and will be available at https://sou.zoom.us/j/81261161853. A question-and-answer session will follow.

The presentation is intended to challenge how people think about aging and will include suggestions for how both individuals and organizations can improve aging and the lives of older people. Aronson says that aging and old age have changed dramatically in recent decades, but that not all changes have been for the better. For example, she points out that the COVID-19 pandemic has shown the resilience of older people and the importance of social connections, but also has demonstrated the ageism that is built into key social structures.

Aronson is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and a professor of medicine at University of California, San Francisco. She has received the Gold Professorship in Humanism in Medicine, the California Homecare Physician of the Year award and the American Geriatrics Society Clinician-Teacher of the Year award. She currently leads the AGE SELF CARE program and serves as an advisor to the state of California on COVID-19 in elders and eldercare settings, in addition to her clinical practice and teaching.

Her website points out that Aronson was born at the same medical center where she now works – “a fact that sometimes leads her to comment that she hasn’t gone very far in life, just down 15 floors and over a building or two.”

She has written for the New York Times, Atlantic, Washington Post, JAMA, Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine, and has been featured on NPR’s Fresh Air, TODAY, CBS This Morning, NBC News and the New Yorker.

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SOU receives ODVA Veteran Grant

SOU receives ODVA Campus Veteran Grant Award

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The Social Justice and Equity Center (SJEC) Veterans & Military Families at Southern Oregon University has been awarded a $58,163 grant from the Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs (ODVA) to help improve outcomes for student veterans at the university. This is the second consecutive year that SOU has secured the Campus Veteran Grant Award and the first as the SJEC Veterans & Military Families (VMF) program, which was formerly known as the Veterans Resource Center.

SOU is one of 15 Oregon universities and community colleges to receive the one-year veterans resource grants, which range this year from $11,040 to $58,635. A total of $600,000 was awarded.

The Campus Veteran Grant Award will enable the VMF program at SOU to amplify its existing campus programs focused on supporting veterans and military family members. The grant highlights three pillars: successful transition from military service to college life, success in college and completion of educational goals; and the transition from college to the workforce and community.

Kelly Fitzpatrick, director of the Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs, said that education can be “a critical gateway for many veterans to transition out of the military into a successful civilian career.”

Jesse S. Watson, Ph.D., SOU’s equity coordinator for Veterans & Military Families, said the new grant award will be used to create a two-pronged cultural competence training course for incoming students and for staff and faculty; provide funding for orientation and outreach; hire a graduate assistant; and add new programs to support the university’s veterans and military families.

“I am thankful for the work of my predecessor, Kevin Stevens, who secured the first CVRC grant for our veteran community,” Watson said. “The initial funding has strengthened the infrastructure of the Veterans & Military Families spaces, providing a foundation for future programmatic growth.”

A Veterans Affairs committee evaluated the proposal of each college and university that applied for the grants, approving some projects and declining others. Other institutions receiving the Veterans Resource grants are the University of Oregon, Oregon State University, Portland State University and Western Oregon University, and Blue Mountain, Central Oregon, Chemeketa, Clackamas, Klamath, Lane, Linn-Benton, Mount Hood, Rogue and Southwestern Oregon community colleges.

For more information about VMF programs, please visit: www.sou.edu/veterans.

Vaccination clinic on SOU campus

COVID, flu vaccination offered on SOU campus

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A free vaccination clinic for SOU employees and family members seeking either flu shots or COVID-19 boosters will be held next Thursday, Dec. 16, in the Rogue River Room of the Stevenson Union. Face coverings will be required.

Those interested in receiving any of the vaccinations at next week’s clinic are asked to complete this questionnaire by Wednesday, Dec. 8, to help organizers assess interest and ensure adequate supplies and staffing at the event.

COVID vaccinations and boosters from both Moderna and Johnson & Johnson will be available, with no insurance coverage required, for those over age 18 who can show their COVID-19 vaccination cards. The Pfizer vaccine will not be available.

Flu shots will be offered to all who are age 3 or older and have insurance cards from Providence Choice, Providence Statewide or Kaiser. Moda and other forms of health insurance will not be accepted.

The clinic is a collaborative effort of SOU’s Human Resources and Environmental Health and Safety departments, and Wellness 2000, a corporate wellness vendor in Medford. SOU continues to urge students, employees and their families to be cautious in social interactions and to take reasonable steps to ensure their safety, particularly with the omicron variant emerging quickly across the U.S. and the flu season building.

For those unable to attend the Dec. 16 clinic, another option for COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters is a drive-through clinic at the Jackson County Expo from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays and from noon to 6 p.m. each Monday through Thursday. No appointment is needed, vaccinations are free and the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are available. Flu shots are not available at the Expo.