shanell sanchez SOU Ashland

SOU faculty member publishes book on consequences of discrimination

/in ,

(Ashland, Ore.) — Shanell Sanchez, an associate professor in the Criminology and Criminal Justice Department at Southern Oregon University, is co-editor of a new book on the causes and consequences of discrimination against vulnerable populations.

“Exploitation and Criminalization at the Margins: The Hidden Toll on Unvalued Lives” was published by Rowman & Littlefield, a well- respected independent publisher of U.S. academic titles.

The book is co-edited by Sanchez and Taryn VanderPyl, an associate professor of Criminal Justice Sciences at Western Oregon University, with chapters contributed by each of the editors and 18 others. It is divided into four parts – Value and Risk, Lived Experience, Immigration, and Power and Oppression – and a total of 15 chapters.

It examines discrimination against children, women, people of color, immigrants and others who are systemically devalued. The book’s contributors explore bias from institutions and those in positions of authority, in the context of policing and criminal justice, sex trafficking, intimate partner violence, immigration, disability, politics, substance abuse and food insecurity.

Chapter topics range from food apartheid and the criminalization of food insecurity, to stigmatizing and labeling Mexican immigrants, to the normalization of hate.

“VanderPyl and Sanchez’s edited volume brings to the forefront the complex realities for people entangled in the criminal legal system and other systems of injustice,” Kimberly Kras, an associate professor in the School of Public Affairs at San Diego State University, said in a review of the book. “Looking behind the scenes on topics including policing and prisons, education, media, immigration, and political power and oppression, the authors illuminate the subtexts of structural oppression.

“By uplifting voices of those with lived experience, this collection reveals the undervalued humanity of people who cause harm and yet are also harmed,” Kras said. “These stories-as-scholarship evoke the empathy and empowerment needed to change our notions about whose life is most valued – and encourages actions to transform the system.”

Sanchez joined the SOU Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice faculty in 2016, and served previously as an assistant professor of criminal justice at Colorado Mesa University, from 2013 to 2016. She received both her Ph.D. and master’s degree in sociology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Northern Colorado.

Her teaching and research areas of interest include crime and deviance, social change, comparative crime, social inequality, qualitative methods, latino/a immigration, education and society, mass media, criminology, juvenile justice and delinquency, and minority health and illness.

VanderPyl has served on the faculty at WOU since 2019. She received her Ph.D. in special education and juvenile justice from Claremont Graduate University, her master’s degree in special education from Arizona State University and her bachelor’s degree in business administration from Northern Arizona University. Her research interests include interventions and legislation that pertain to juvenile and adult corrections, and that affect reentry and recidivism.

-SOU-

SOU plans forums to kick off facilities master plan

/in ,

(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.

-SOU-

Sister institutions SOU and Universidad de Guanajuato renewed their collaborative relationship

SOU and Mexican sister institution establish new agreement

/in ,

(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.

-SOU-

Grant awarded for additional SOU solar projects

SOU receives third $1 million state grant for solar arrays

/in ,

(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.

-SOU-

SOU's Kelly Szott awarded post-doc fellowship

SOU faculty member earns research fellowship on substance abuse

/in , ,

(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.

-SOU-

Presidents of Oregon's TRUs visit Taiwan

Oregon’s regional universities build strategic international partnership in Taiwan

/in ,

(KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan) — The Presidents of Oregon’s public technical and regional universities (TRUs) – Southern Oregon University, Western Oregon University, Eastern Oregon University and Oregon Institute of Technology – signed a memorandum of understanding on Aug. 15 with Wenzao University in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

The MOU aims to foster teacher-student exchanges, student mobility programs, joint research initiatives and Chinese language programs, all with the goal of cultivating international and cross-disciplinary talent.

The delegation was led by Oregon State Rep. Paul Evans (District 20) and was made up of key leaders from Oregon’s universities, including Rick Bailey, president of Southern Oregon University; Jesse Peters, president of Western Oregon University; Kelly Ryan, president of Eastern Oregon University; and Nagi Naganathan, president of Oregon Institute of Technology; along with Sheila Clough, chair of the SOU Board of Trustees.

The signing ceremony was attended by dignitaries including Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai, Oregon State Rep. Evans and former state Rep. Brian Clem. Others present included director of the Kaohsiung Branch of the American Institute in Taiwan, Neil H. Gibson; Wen Hongguo, leader of the cultural newsgroup of the Kaohsiung Branch of the American Institute in Taiwan; and additional cultural and educational stakeholders.

The partnership marks a new chapter in global academic cooperation, as Wenzao University continues to establish itself as a hub of international education.

“Wenzao’s alliance with a well-known higher education institution in the United States has great symbolic significance,” Wenzao University President Zhuang Huiling said.

Wenzao University was founded in 1966 by a group of nuns from the Saint Ursuline religious order in Rome, and Huiling said the school has always adhered to the spirit of “internationalization.” Wenzao University has more than 320 sister schools around the world, where its students have the opportunity to study abroad. At the same time, Wenzao hosts students from 19 countries to integrate multiple cultures into the campus.

This is an important milestone between Wenzao University and Oregon’s public, technical and regional universities. It not only strengthens each institution’s connection with the world, but also opens up a new era for academic exchanges and development.

The presidents from Oregon’s TRU institutions value the importance of international educational exchanges.

“International educational exchanges are essential for fostering global understanding and collaboration,” the presidents said in a joint statement. “They provide students and faculty invaluable opportunities to learn from diverse perspectives, enriching both their academic and personal growth. We are deeply grateful for the warm hospitality extended during our visit and look forward to nurturing and growing this partnership.”

-SOU-

Marcus Mariota donates football shoes to SOU

Heisman Trophy winner Mariota donates to SOU football

/in , ,

(Ashland, Ore.) — For those who don’t agree that first impressions are lasting impressions, talk to Marcus Mariota. The former Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback of the University of Oregon and current member of the NFL’s Washington Commanders has donated new Nike cleats for every member of the Southern Oregon University football team – a total of 140 pairs – based on a visit he made to SOU with his brother several years ago.

Mariota’s donation – valued at about $16,500 – was distributed to members of the SOU football team when they arrived for a morning practice on Monday, Aug. 19, at the football locker room in Raider Stadium.

The donation was orchestrated in part by SOU alumnus Ed Nishioka, who – like the Mariotas – hails from Hawaii.

“He really appreciates the fact that the team has many Hawaii players and the school has good Hawaii representation,” Nishioka said.

Marcus Mariota visited SOU when his brother, Matt, was considering a transfer from the UO to the Ashland campus. Matt Mariota, a tight end, wound up playing at the UO for four years, ending with the 2019 season.

Marcus Mariota, whose coaches at the UO included SOU alumnus Mark Helfrich, also donated cleats to football players at Lahainaluna High School after it was devastated by the Maui wildfires of 2023.

SOU football coach Berk Brown said his players were enthusiastic about the new cleats. Members of the news media were welcome when the football shoes were distributed.

-SOU-

SOU's Worth Harvey Pipe Organ is 50 years old.

SOU’s 50th anniversary celebration of its pipe organ

/in , ,

(Ashland, Ore.) — There will be cake. There will be festivities marking a half-century milestone. And most certainly, there will be music.

Southern Oregon University will observe the 50th anniversary of the SOU Music Recital Hall’s Worth Harvey Pipe Organ – and the history behind it – with a celebration and concert at 2 p.m. on Friday, August 23. The massive and much-celebrated pipe organ itself will be at center stage.

“Come and hear the organ sing for this glorious occasion,” said SOU professor emerita Margaret Evans, who will perform on the instrument that has framed her career. “The organ is truly the ‘King of Instruments’ and we hope the audience will enjoy the joyous sounds of organ music.”

The concert and golden anniversary reception – with cake and punch – will be hosted by the SOU Foundation and the SOU Music Department. The performance, parking and reception are free and open to the public.

The performance by Evans, who continues to serve as an adjunct professor of organ at SOU, will showcase the unique qualities of the university’s powerful and complex Worth Harvey Pipe Organ. Evans will play the organ’s multiple keyboards, with feet flying across the pedals to cover bassline notes. The instrument’s various “stops,” or controls, will also create different “tonal colors,” allowing Evans to produce sounds on a spectrum from bright and piercing to warm and mellow.

SOU’s Music Recital Hall was still being planned in the late 1960s, when the chair of the Music Department lobbied for performance space to accommodate a pipe organ – even though the state of Oregon’s appropriation for the building did not include funding for the instrument. The new Music Building and Recital Hall opened in 1972 with space for an organ, and Medford philanthropist Agnes Flanagan agreed to co-chair an organ fund-raising committee.

Flanagan, who was known as a tireless letter writer, immediately began tapping friends and acquaintances for contributions – and didn’t hesitate to remind those whose pledges had not been paid. Donors who paid $50 or more were promised the opportunity to sign one of the organ’s 2,000 pipes, – and 250 contributors qualified.

Worth Harvey, a Eugene and Cottage Grove banker, led the way by donating $40,000 of the instrument’s total cost of $67,000. It was created by Seattle-based organ builder Balcom and Vaughan, and its console was updated in 2000 at a cost of $20,000. The SOU instrument would cost about $1 million if built today.

The organ was dedicated to Harvey, who was a 1906 alumnus of what was then Southern Oregon State Normal School, at a pipe-signing party on October 26, 1974. Initial recitals on the instrument were performed in December 1974 by Portland organist John Strege – the first in a long and ongoing string of renowned organists to play at SOU.

The Worth Harvey Pipe Organ served as the “host” instrument for the Northwest Regional Convention of the American Guild of Organists in 1997, and has been used in church choir festivals, ensemble concerts and as a study instrument by many students.

Margaret Evans, who is SOU’s fourth organ instructor since 1974, is currently dean of the Southern Oregon Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and a trustee of the SOU Foundation. She has played recitals and presented workshops throughout the country and has had a nearly 50-year career as an organist and choir director for a variety of churches.

Evans will open this month’s anniversary concert with “Praeludium in G Major” by Nikolaus Bruhns, and will also include Bach’s “Schmüke dich, o liebe Seele” and “Prelude and Fugue in D Major.” The performance will continue with Kerensa Briggs’ “Prelude on Pange Lingua” and “Variations on a Theme by Paganini for Pedals” by George Thalben-Ball, and will conclude with Louis Vierne’ “Clair de Lune” and “Carillon de Westminster.”

All upcoming 2024-25 SOU events, music and theatre performances are listed on the OCA website at https://oca.sou.edu/events.

-SOU-

Travis Campbell's research on family support for transgender youth

SOU economist’s research paper stresses importance of family support for trans youth

/in , ,

(Ashland, Ore.) — SOU economist Travis Campbell is the lead author of a research paper that highlights the critical role of family support during the “identity development” of transgender youth. The study was published in this month’s issue of JAMA Pediatrics, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Medical Association.

The paper, “Mental Health of Transgender Youth Following Gender Identity Milestones by Level of Family Support,” concludes that transgender youth who live in unsupportive families are at significantly increased risk of suicide attempts and running away from home when they initiate any of four gender identity milestones: feeling that their gender is different, thinking of themselves as transgender, telling others that they are transgender and living full-time in their gender identity. By contrast, for those who live in supportive families, “there were no statistically significant associations between gender identity milestones and adverse mental health outcomes,” the research found.

In their study, Campbell and his co-authors – Yana Rodgers, a professor in the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University; Samuel Mann an associate economist at RAND Corporation; and Nathaniel Tran, an incoming assistant professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois, Chicago – analyzed data from the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, the largest-ever assessment of transgender people with more than 27,700 respondents across the U.S. The collaborating authors analyzed the responses of 18,303 of those survey respondents, all of whom were transgender adults who had initiated at least one gender identity milestone between the ages of 4 and 18 years.

“These results demonstrate that without a supportive family environment, gender identity development increases the risk of transgender youth attempting suicide or running away from home,” the paper in this month’s JAMA Pediatrics said. “Social services and community resources to establish supportive relationships between transgender children and their parents are essential.”

Gender identity milestones are common and important steps in identity development for transgender youth, the paper said, and “may result in changes in internalized and externalized stress because of exclusion, rejection and violence,” which can contribute to “gender dysphoria” – a sense of distress for those who feel their assigned sex at birth does not match their gender identity. But the authors also said that achieving those milestones “is one way transgender people achieve self-actualization.”

The paper said the mental health of transgender people can improve with medical procedures that reduce gender dysphoria and interventions that lessen any gender-related stigma they may experience. On the other hand, limiting the options of transgender people can negatively affect them, the authors said.

“Antitransgender legislation is associated with worsening mental health outcomes among gender minority individuals, which is of particular note given the recent rise in antitransgender legislation, including bills that establish criminal charges for providing gender-affirming care to transgender youth,” the paper said, citing new laws in Oklahoma and Wyoming that ban gender-affirming care for minors.

Campbell joined the SOU Economics faculty as an assistant professor after earning his Ph.D. in economics in 2022 from the University of Massachusetts. His research applies microeconomics to social justice issues, including economic inequalities based on race, gender and sexuality. His classes at SOU include Micro and Macroeconomics, Quantitative Methods and Application, Healthcare Economics, Labor Economics and Gender Issues in Economics.

-SOU-

Training exercises will be held at Cascade complex

SOU’s Cascade complex to host variety of first responder training exercises

/in ,

(Ashland, Ore.) — First responders are likely to become  a common sight at Southern Oregon University’s defunct Cascade student housing complex for the remainder of this summer, as the university has offered the site for a variety of training exercises before demolition of the sprawling facility ramps up in the fall.

Agencies including Ashland Fire & Rescue, Ashland Police Department, Medford Police Department, Medford Fire Department and SWAT teams from Medford, Jackson County and Oregon State Police are coordinating with SOU Campus Public Safety & Parking to conduct drills at the site through Aug. 31. The groups are planning to practice their procedures for building searches, tactical search and rescue, door and window breaching, ladder operations and more.

“This collaboration helps foster our relationships with our first responders and provide them with the opportunity to gather data and experience on the tactics and tools they use to keep our community safe,” said Robert Gibson, director of SOU’s Campus Public Safety & Parking.

SOU programs and offices that are located near the Cascade Complex – a five-acre parcel at the southeast corner of campus – have been advised to expect a frequent presence of first responders in the area, now through the end of August. Each agency will post “Training In Progress” signs outside the complex to advise neighbors and passersby that they are present for training, rather than a live event.

The Cascade complex, which was completed in 1967, has been largely vacant for the past decade, when the costs associated with extending its useful life became prohibitive. The facility – eight residence halls situated around a central cafeteria – has numerous roof leaks, defunct HVAC and steam systems, and degraded plumbing. At least two of its wings have been condemned.

The 2021 Oregon State Legislature allocated $3.5 million for SOU to raze the Cascade Complex, which will eliminate a $12 million deferred maintenance backlog on the facility – the amount it would cost to correct its current physical deficits. Some interior destruction is underway this summer and fall, and general demolition is expected to begin in early 2025. The project will include concrete crushing to fill and level the basement and old tunnels that were used for the structure’s mechanical systems.

The site is expected to be ready for redevelopment by the middle of 2025. President Rick Bailey and other SOU leaders have begun exploratory conversations with potential private partners for the development of a senior living facility to be built at the Cascade complex location. The senior living center is seen as an entrepreneurial opportunity the create a unique synergy between its residents, SOU students, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at SOU and the university. The facility could be completed as early as fall 2027.

This summer’s pre-demolition access to the Cascade complex will give first responder agencies an opportunity to train in situations and surroundings that are not typically available to them.

-SOU-