first-generation student goes beyond expectations

Southern Exposure published biweekly for summer

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Southern Exposure, Southern Oregon University’s curated e-newsletter, will switch to an every-other week publication schedule for the rest of the summer, following today’s issue. Its next installment will be published on Tuesday, July 11.

Southern Exposure has been delivered by email to all SOU students and employees on Tuesdays since February 2021. It offers a mix of featured stories and reader-submitted announcements with each issue, along with links to the latest mentions of SOU in media outlets nationwide and to the university’s events calendar.

The publication’s featured stories are primarily from SOU News, the website that serves as a source of timely news and information about the university, its programs and its people. Other featured stories are curated from a variety of SOU websites and publications – from departmental blogs to alumni news to Jefferson Public Radio and the Siskiyou student newspaper.

Those who wish to suggest a featured story for SOU News can do so by reading and filling out the online submission form. Submissions for the announcements section of Southern Exposure can be made on a separate form up until noon on the Monday before the next issue is published.

Southern Exposure will resume its regular, weekly publication schedule in September.

New solar arrays to be installed at SOU

SOU receives additional $1 million in state support for solar arrays

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Southern Oregon University continues to leverage state and federal support for renewable energy projects, with the Oregon Department of Energy announcing last week that the university will be awarded a $1 million grant for the second straight year to build solar arrays on campus. SOU also received a $2 million congressional appropriation in December to help pay for its bid to become the nation’s first public university to produce all of the daytime electricity used on its campus.

The energy department’s Community Renewable Energy Grant Program awarded a total of $12 million to 39 recipients – Tribes, public bodies and consumer-owned utilities – to support planning and construction of renewable energy or energy resilience projects. SOU’s is one of seven projects that were awarded grants in the neighborhood of $1 million each.

“This grant award speaks volumes about our identity as a public university,” President Rick Bailey said. “This is who we are – fiscally innovative, environmentally sensitive and always mindful of our students and their experiences on our campus.

“This grant and other current and future funding opportunities will allow us to reduce our dependence on tuition as a revenue source, and increase accessibility and affordability for students throughout our state and region.”

The most recent ODE grant will help pay for SOU’s first parking lot solar array, which will consist of solar panels on steel structures in a lot adjacent to The Hawk Dining Commons. The structures will provide shading in addition to power generation, and the project will also pay for eight new electric vehicle charging ports – expanding the university’s total number of EV ports to 20.

Last year’s first-round grant in ODE’s Community Renewable Energy Grant Program – along with federal funding and a contribution from the Student Green Fund – will pay for solar installations on The Hawk Dining Commons and the Lithia Motors Pavilion/Student Recreation Center complex, and a battery storage facility to enhance community resilience. The $2 million congressional allocation will help pay for additional solar arrays on SOU’s parking lots and rooftops.

“Our momentum toward energy independence is very exciting and will be a game-changer for our university,” SOU Sustainability Director Becs Walker said. “We plan to be producing all of our own electricity within about 10 years, and ultimately to become a carbon net zero campus . This progress demonstrates our leadership in sustainability and the transition of the energy infrastructure.

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 and partnerships to further build energy and community resilience. He achieved that on a smaller scale at Northern New Mexico College, where he served as president before being hired at SOU in January 2022.

The current solar projects will increase SOU’s generating capacity to about 16 percent of the electricity it uses on campus.

The university 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 by a nonprofit on land leased from SOU. The two new arrays supported by the state grants will increase SOU’s solar capacity by a total of 359 kilowatts.

SOU will continue to implement energy conservation and energy efficiency measures as it increases its solar power production. SOU’s Hawk Dining Commons and McLoughlin Residence Hall each have solar hot water systems installed to augment their natural gas domestic water heating, and the campus has three net-zero buildings – they create as much or more energy than they use. The university is also a partner in the DOE’s Better Climate Challenge, which supports SOU’s 2033 goals to reduce Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent from a 2018 baseline, and to reduce energy intensity by 25 percent from a 2022 baseline.

Solar energy production is a key part of SOU’s plan to develop new, entrepreneurial revenue streams and reduce dependence on the two traditional funding sources for public higher education nationwide – tuition and state funding. The university has also begun a project to demolish the vacant Cascade housing complex and replace it with a senior living facility that produces partnerships between its residents and the university. Funding for the demolition has been approved by the state and is expected to begin in the next several 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.

ODE’s Community Renewable Energy Grant Program was created by the 2021 Legislature, which set aside $50 million for projects throughout the state over three years – with $12 million available in the current funding cycle. The program is intended to build energy and community resilience in rural, underserved areas, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help to rewire America through the expansion of solar energy generation and electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

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EV charging station survey

Campus survey to help steer expansion of EV charging stations

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Southern Oregon University is seeking input on the expansion of its electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure on campus. The university is increasing its EV charging capacity and wants to hear from students, faculty, staff and community members about where and how they would like to see the charging stations located.

The survey, which can be found here, asks respondents about their EV ownership, their charging habits and their preferences for EV charging locations. The survey is open to everyone, regardless of whether they own an EV.

SOU aims to strategically plan and identify optimal locations for charging stations as the demand for electric vehicle charging increases on campus. The intent is to accommodate the distinct charging needs of students, employees and visitors to campus.

SOU currently has 12 charging ports – six double stations – on campus, plus a single charger for its partnership project with the City of Ashland for an EV carshare program funded by Forth Mobility.

One challenge that SOU faces is an electrical infrastructure and connection points that vary in quality and capacity at different locations across campus. That means installation costs for the charging equipment will differ, depending on the sites that are chosen.

The university’s Solar Power and Rechargeable Cars Committee (SPARC) – made up of faculty, students and staff members – will address that issue and others as its members develop a strategy to expand the EV charging infrastructure. The EV Charging Survey was developed by Marissa Defazio, a student representative on SPARC and director of the Associated Students of SOU’s Environmental Affairs Committee.

The survey aims to gather opinions and suggestions from the SOU community to ensure that the expansion aligns with needs and preferences.

The university is working to secure funding for the additional charging stations. SOU has already received support from the Oregon Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Energy to install EV charging stations, and funding from the Student Green Fund to install EV charging at the Student and Family Housing complex.

The university is committed to sustainability and reducing its environmental impact. By expanding its EV charging infrastructure, SOU is making it easier for students, faculty, staff and community members to drive electric vehicles.

The university is asking for help to make the expansion project a success. All are encouraged to take the survey and share it with friends, family and colleagues.

The Creativity Conference at SOU is this week

Fifth year of Creativity Conference at SOU to unfold this week

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(Ashland, Ore.) — The fifth annual Creativity Conference at SOU will begin a four-day run on Thursday, May 18, with a lineup of 123 presenters, including seven keynote speakers. The conference is expected to draw many of the world’s top scholars, researchers and practitioners in the field of creativity, along with a wide variety of working professionals looking for ways to bring creativity into their work.

The conference, first held in 2018, will be presented in a hybrid format. Thursday, May 18, will be reserved for remote presenters and those presentations will be livestreamed via the conference app. In-person attendees will have the option of watching the streams for those events in designated rooms on SOU’s campus. In-person presentations will be held Friday, May 19, through Sunday, May 21, in Southern Oregon University’s Stevenson Union, but all of those sessions will also be livestreamed and available to remote attendees. Attendees will also be able to view archived versions of all presentations.

Registration remains open for the event, which begins with an 8:30 a.m. “kickoff” address on May 18 by Mark Runco of SOU, who co-created the conference with Dan DeNeui, SOU’s Associate Provost.

“This conference features internationally renowned speakers and presenters who are prominent in the study of creativity,” DeNeui said. “The material they present will spark imagination and cause attendees to rethink how they approach their work.

“This year we are featuring a keynote address and numerous presentations on the role of artificial intelligence and creativity.”

Individual events at the conference will again be held in any of four formats: 60 minute panel presentations by two or three people; 40- to 50-minute presentations by individuals; 15-minute “boom talk” presentations that quickly get to the “so what” of their topics; and poster presentations. All varieties of presentation formats will all offer time for questions and answers.

This year’s keynote speakers are Arthur I. Miller, emeritus professor of the history and philosophy of science at University College London ; Ivonne Chand O’Neal, founder and principal of the creativity and arts impact research firm Muse Research, LLC; Roger Beaty, and assistant professor of psychology at Penn State University and director of PSU’s Cognitive Neuroscience of Creativity Lab; Roni Reiter-Palmon, Varner Professor of Industrial/Organizational Psychology and director of the I/O Psychology graduate program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha; and Ted Adams, founder of Clover Press, author of graphic novels and member of the SOU Foundation’s Board of Trustees.

Mark Runco will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from SOU at the 2023 Creativity Conference. He is past president of the American Psychological Association’s Division 10 and editor of the Journal of Creativity. He is editor emeritus of the Creativity Research Journal and has co-edited three editions of the Encyclopedia of Creativity. His creativity textbook has been translated into over a dozen languages (the 3rd edition is due out any day). Runco was previously the Torrance Professor of Creative Studies at the University of Georgia and is currently director of creativity research and programming at SOU.

The SOU Creativity Conference is an international event that provides cutting-edge information and resources for those who are interested in learning more about the science and application of creativity research. The conference provides an opportunity for creativity researchers to collaborate and broaden their networks.

SOU’s strategic plan specifically emphasizes creativity, innovation and other human skills that augment technical skills and are particularly valued by employers.

Those with questions about the conference may reach out to either Mark Runco at runcom@sou.edu or Dan DeNeui at deneuid@sou.edu.

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Global Innovation Scholars visit by Guanajuato delegation

SOU-Guanajuato collaborations expand with Global Innovation Scholars

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Southern Oregon University hosted two professors and nine business students last week from Universidad de Guanajuato, as the two longtime sister campuses continued their Global Innovation Scholars program – a collaboration on multicultural business development that was initiated through the U.S. Department of State.

The nine Guanajuato students, along with 10 SOU students who visited Guanajuato in April, worked last week on development plans for three Rogue Valley businesses or organizations –  Ride My Road, Mt. Ashland and the Ashland Climate Collaborative. The 19 combined students in this year’s exchange program spent the week in Ashland researching and analyzing the businesses, then offered their suggested development plans to the business owners.

SOU President Rick Bailey hosted a welcome reception for the Guanajuato delegation, and the Ashland Amigo Club – which supports the Ashland-Guanajuato Sister City program – hosted a farewell gathering at the Grizzly Peak Winery.

The SOU and UG students did similar work in Guanajuato last month, when they researched and offered development suggestions to three Mexican businesses. The SOU delegation that visited Guanajuato was led by Dee Fretwell, a Business Department instructor and director of the Global Innovation Scholars program at SOU; Jeremy Carlton, a Business Department instructor and chair of the department; and Vincent Smith, a professor and director of the Division of Business, Communication and the Environment.

Fretwell introduced the Global Innovation Scholars program last year, in partnership with UG business professor and SOU alumnus Martin Pantoja – who also led last week’s Guanajuato delegation to Ashland, along with UG professor Lari Arthur Viianto.

“This program is truly unique, in that it brings together students from two communities and cultures to learn from each other while providing valuable insights to business owners,” Fretwell said.

The Global Innovation Scholars program includes international, online coursework for participating students during each year’s winter and spring terms, in addition to the opportunity for immersive social and cultural experiences. Global Innovation Scholars was developed last year by the two universities’ business schools as part of the “100,000 Strong in the Americas” program, sponsored by the State Department, the U.S. Embassies and the nonprofit organization Partners for the Americas.

The SOU-UG partnership received a $25,000 grant last year from the 100,000 Strong program, which serves more than 500 higher education institutions in 25 Western Hemisphere countries and 49 U.S. states. This year’s program was funded by the SOU Institute for Applied Sustainability – established last fall through a generous gift from Lithia Motors and GreenCars – and through the support of  Barbara Tyler and Tom Curran.

SOU and UG have initiated a variety of exchange and cooperative projects since they became sister universities in 1969. The link between the two schools has led more than 1,000 students, faculty members and others to participate in exchanges – and has resulted in more than 80 marriages that have tied people from Ashland and Guanajuato over three generations.

The current Global Innovation Scholars project grew out of a previous partnership between the two schools – the Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) program – which brought together classes of upper-division business students to work on the development of international business relationships.

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Arbor Day volunteers at SOU

Arbor Day celebrated at SOU

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A team of volunteers came together to help the SOU landscaping crew to celebrate Arbor Day on Friday, April 28, by doing tree maintenance and planting a variety of trees and shrubs on campus.

Arbor Day is observed each year, as part of SOU’s certification as a Tree Campus, to help maintain the current health of the trees on campus, while planting additional trees to further develop the green spaces across campus. Trees are integral to environmental stability, including helping to combat climate change, purify the air and prevent soil erosion and water pollution. Trees also have many mental health benefits for students and cool streets and cities.

Arbor Day tree plantingThe trees and shrubs planted on Arbor Day were purchased from the local Shooting Star Nursery and Plant Oregon, and included several native varieties, including pollinator plants.

The shrubs included 10 native redtwig dogwoods, along with five autumn brilliance serviceberries. With some solid teamwork, five young giant sequoias were planted, along with several Heritage River birch and spire oak trees. The new plants are all located outside the Music Building on the SOU campus.

Another team worked on maintaining other trees on campus, with a focus on pruning several established trees and removal of any dead wood to keep the established trees healthy.

Volunteers for the event included students, faculty and staff from IT, facilities, sustainability and the vice president for finance and administration. The yearly involvement in Arbor Day celebrations helps to involve students in service learning projects, encouraging physical activity, promote sustainable practices and encourage a healthier campus environment.

Arbor Day was originally celebrated in 1872, and marked the planting of more than a million trees Nebraska. Arbor Day was proclaimed as a legal state holiday in Nebraska in 1885. By 1920, more than 45 states joined the tradition and today, Arbor Day is celebrated in all U.S. states.

The holiday is focused on hope for the future, representing the belief that the hard work now will grow to provide clean air and water, cooling shade and wildlife habitat that will overall promote healthier communities.

Special thanks went to Zack Williams and the SOU landscaping team for organizing the event. The team works hard to maintain the beauty of SOU’s campus, developing green spaces and pollinator habitats that benefit the environment and community.

Alec Arellano lectures on democracy in Campus Theme series

Occidental College professor to lecture on identity of American democracy

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Occidental College political scientist Alec Arellano will visit SOU this week as a guest speaker in the 15th anniversary edition of SOU’s “Campus Theme” lecture series. He will lecture on the identity of American democracy.

Arellano’s lecture, “Continuity and Change: John Dewey on Navigating Democratic Identity,” will be at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 4, in Room 124 of the Art Building. It is free and open to the public.

SOU’s Campus Theme lecture series aims to create opportunities for students, faculty, staff and community members to engage in intellectually stimulating conversations. Each theme in the annual series – which began in the 2009-10 academic year focuses on a specific concept and addresses big questions, enables deep understanding and broadens the intellectual horizons of participants. This year’s theme is “identity.”

Arellano says that the United States faces a myriad of challenges, many of which go to the core of American democracy’s identity, as the country enters the 21st century’s second decade. The challenges concern the balance between holding fast to custom and tradition on the one hand, and innovating in response to new circumstances on the other.

The philosophy of John Dewey, who characterized democracy as not just a system of formal political institutions but also as a way of life requiring the possession and continual use of certain attitudes, furnishes a resource for thinking through this issue, Arellano says. Though Dewey’s short 1934 book, “A Common Faith,” is on its surface a proposal for a post-Christian spirituality that he wants to inaugurate, it also can be productively read as an account of some of the habits of character he regards as necessary for life in a modern democracy.

The SOU Campus Theme presentation will examine some of Dewey’s strategies for promoting those habits of character and consider their relevance for contemporary life.

Arellano is a political theorist specializing in Ancient Greek political thought, contemporary American political thought, and liberalism and its critics. He teaches courses on constitutional law and society, American politics and political theory in the Department of Politics at Occidental College.

Arellano received his Ph.D. in 2019 from The University of Texas at Austin. His work has been published in top journals in political science, and his current research examines Alexis de Tocqueville, John Stuart Mill and John Dewey’s views regarding the conditions under which critical, independent thought can be a salutary force for democratic politics. He is also the nephew of Bobby Arellano, a professor in SOU’s Department of Emerging Media and Digital Arts.

AHS junior varsity Brain Bowl team

SOU hosts middle and high school Brain Bowl

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(Ashland, Ore.) — The 46th annual Southern Oregon Brain Bowl, a quizbowl tournament organized by Southern Oregon University for area middle and high school teams, is in the books and the winners were Sacred Heart Home School, Cascade Christian and Ashland High in the high school divisions, and Ashland Middle School, Eagle Point and North Middle in the middle school divisions.

Sacred Heart Brain Bowl teamThe Southern Oregon Brain Bowl, which began in 1977 and is based on game show Jeopardy, is a local academic competition between southern Oregon middle schools and high schools. The schools compete in teams through a semi-final round, then championship rounds are held in the studios of Southern Oregon PBS and broadcast to the local viewing audience.

A total of 17 teams representing 14 schools competed in this year’s high school tournament, played with a March 18 opening round and then a final round last Saturday, April 22. The finals for both the varsity and junior varsity levels were held on the SOU campus and aired Sunday on SOPBS.

Ashland High School competed against the Sacred Heart Home School team in this year’s Division A Varsity, with Sacred Heart taking the trophy with a 75-40 final score. Cascade Christian and Eagle Point High School had a close match in Division B Varsity, with Cascade Christian coming out on top, 43-40. Ashland High School won a nail-biter over defending 2022 champion Grants Pass High School in the Junior Varsity Division – the two teams were tied until the final question, and the Ashland High team won, 39-37.

Cascade Christian Brain Bowl teamThe middle school divisions played in a round-robin format for five weeks beginning in January and ending in February. Winners were determined by their win/loss standings, and ties were broken by the winners of head-to-head competitions.

Division A was made up of Ashland, Hedrick, Logos, McLoughlin, St. Mary’s and The Valley School. Ashland and St. Mary’s each finished the tournament with a win-loss record of 4-1, but Ashland won a head-to-head match against, 13-12, in week two.

Division B was made up of Cascade Christian, Eagle Point, Kids Unlimited, Sacred Heart and Siskiyou School. Eagle Point and Siskiyou School each finished with 3-1 win-loss records, but Eagle Point won the two schools’ head-to-head matchup, 30-27, in week four.

Division C was made up of Fleming, Hanby, North, Rogue River, Scenic and South. North and South middle schools were the top finishers, with North running the table for a 5-0 win-loss record, followed by South at 4-1.

SOU Pre-College Youth Programs organized the tournaments, which were sponsored by Lithia 4Kids and open to participants from the Jackson, Josephine and Klamath County school districts. Organizers congratulated all team members and participating schools in both the middle and high school competitions, and thanked the coaches who served as mentors to their students and the SOPBS staff and volunteers who helped host the events.

More program information, pictures and scoreboards are available at the SOU Pre-College Youth Program website.

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SOU Forward realignment plan approved

SOU Board of Trustees approves realignment plan

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(Ashland, Ore.) — The Southern Oregon University Board of Trustees voted unanimously today to adopt the SOU Forward fiscal realignment plan – a four-plank strategy that balances expenses with revenue and then prepares the university for strategic growth by diversifying its sources of revenue.

The board focused primarily on the plan’s first plank – immediate cost management – while the three planks or elements that are centered on revenue generation will unfold over the next several years.

“University leaders clearly understand SOU’s difficult position and have identified the steps necessary to address the institution’s immediate financial threats,” said Daniel Santos, chair of the SOU Board of Trustees. “What my fellow board members and I find most hopeful is that this plan also lays out a course of action that will enable the university to diversify its revenue and avoid similar threats in the future.”

The cost management measures that trustees adopted will reduce expenses by $3.6 million this year while identifying another $9 million in recurring cost reductions. They address structural flaws in the university’s financial model that otherwise would result in a projected $14.6 million deficit by the 2026-27 fiscal year.

The measures will reduce the SOU workforce by the equivalent of almost 82 full-time positions – about 24 of them resulting in current employees losing their jobs. The remainder will be achieved through a combination of current job vacancies, retirements, voluntary departures and non-renewable contracts. The university is working closely with the 24 current employees whose positions will be lost to identify other opportunities.

Those whose positions are impacted are being given advance notice ranging from 120 days to 15 months, depending on job category.

“Make no mistake, this continues to be a challenging process for all of us at SOU,” President Rick Bailey said. “But we will remain committed to kindness, compassion and unity. We are in this together, and will always be mindful of the ways in which this plan affects all of our students, faculty and staff.

“Ultimately, as challenging as this work is, we are doing it because we are united in our love for students. We owe it to current and future students to take the steps necessary to keep SOU affordable and accessible for generations to come.”

The staffing reductions will touch SOU’s three employee groups almost equally, with 27 faculty positions, 30 classified positions and 25 unclassified positions affected. The timing of reductions will vary over the next year and a half, with most being achieved by June 2024 or soon thereafter.

The realignment process, which began in earnest last October, has aimed for transparency and collaboration, with input from SOU’s shared governance partners – the Associated Students of SOU, Faculty Senate and Staff Assembly – and the unions representing both faculty and classified employees. With each decision, efforts have been made to maintain academic excellence and student experiences.

The structural flaws in SOU’s fiscal model are the result of a longstanding reliance on the combination of state appropriations and tuition revenue to pay for most operations. The proportion of those two funding sources has flipped in recent decades for all of Oregon’s seven public universities – what used to be about a two-thirds share from the state and one-third from tuition is now the exact opposite.

President Bailey has said that SOU can “no longer pull the tuition lever” each time its budget must be balanced. The SOU Forward plan identifies strategies that will build the university’s fiscal resilience and reduce its reliance on state funding and tuition.

Those revenue-generating planks call for the university to reimagine how it supports faculty and programs seeking funding from external granting agencies and organizations, leverage an ongoing surge in philanthropic support for SOU and diversify revenue by pursuing entrepreneurial opportunities that include solar power generation and creation of a senior living facility.

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Electric vehicle carshare program comes to SOU

Ashland and SOU partner with nonprofit for EV carshare

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The City of Ashland and Southern Oregon University have partnered with Forth, a Portland-based nonprofit whose mission is to electrify transportation, to bring electric vehicle carshare to Ashland. The collaborative effort will start with one electric vehicle in Ashland, to be located in the SOU parking lot at 390 Wightman Street, next to The Hawk Dining Commons and Lithia Motors Pavilion.

The electric carshare project is part of a new pilot program called GoForth that was created by Forth. The goal of the partnership with Ashland and SOU is to provide access to affordable, all-electric cars for community members to test drive or use.

Carsharing is a system where individuals have access to a network of vehicles for short-term rental. Participants in the GoForth project will need to download the Miocar Network app, create an account and take a brief orientation to use the car. They must be at least 21, have a valid driver’s license and relatively clean driving record, and a valid credit, debit or bank card.

Participants’ first four-hour ride is free, and after that, they will be charged $4 per hour or $35 per day. The electric vehicle stationed in Ashland is a Chevy Bolt.

“It is great to be able to partner with the City of Ashland and Forth to provide access an electric car for community members to test drive or use for errands, shopping or appointments,” said SOU Sustainability Director Becs Walker. “This helps with access to an electric vehicle as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”

Ashland is the most recent of GoForth’s 10 active locations – nine in Oregon and another in Washington. The program has another four future locations planned – one in Oregon, two in Washington and one in Jackson, Wyoming. Electric cars drive much like traditional cars – the pedals, steering wheel and controls are the same, but they are fueled by electricity instead of gas and charge through a plug.

“This carshare allows people a climate-friendly and affordable way to rent a car. It also provides the opportunity try an electric car before committing to one,” said Chad Woodward, climate and energy analyst for the City of Ashland. “As a bonus, the fuel is included.”