Faculty union and SOU Ashland extend contract

SOU and faculty union agree to extend contract

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Southern Oregon University and its faculty union have signed an agreement that will postpone bargaining on a new contract for 18 months, allowing the university to better navigate fiscal uncertainties at the state and federal levels.

The current collective bargaining agreement with the Association of Professors of Southern Oregon University (APSOU) was set to expire in August. Instead, faculty members will receive 2 percent cost-of-living adjustments for each of the next two fiscal years, and the contract will be extended to January 2027.

“This university owes a huge debt of gratitude to the members of the SOU faculty union,” SOU President Rick Bailey said. “We would not be in this position without their initiative. This agreement is without question a testament to their love and commitment to our students, our university and our community.”

Members of APSOU voted overwhelmingly to approve the plan. The university and APSOU leaders agree that the focus now must be on students’ academic experiences.

“APSOU is committed to student success and to working collaboratively with the administration to find solutions that prioritize stability and allow faculty to focus on the high quality teaching, scholarship and service that contribute so much to SOU’s reputation as an educational destination,” said Melissa Anderson, the APSOU president and an associate professor in the library.

The 18-month postponement to negotiations on a new contract will allow the university to navigate ongoing federal policy and funding uncertainties, and budget challenges currently being addressed by the Oregon Legislature.

SOU and the faculty union most recently negotiated a contract in the spring of 2022 – a four-year agreement that provided for modest annual salary adjustments, along with health insurance coverage and guidelines on working conditions.

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SOU Ashland's Calli Pelkey is in top 1% nationwide in MBA test

SOU MBA student places on top percentile in nationwide test

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Southern Oregon University student Calli Pelkey, a participant in SOU’s Online MBA Program, has earned a remarkable distinction, placing in the top 1% nationwide on the Educational Testing Service (ETS) Major Field Test for master of business administration programs.

The MBA Major Field Test is a national standardized exam taken by thousands of MBA students across the country. It assesses knowledge and critical thinking in key areas such as accounting, finance, marketing, management and strategic integration. Scoring in the top percentile is an extraordinary academic achievement and a rare honor.

“First and foremost, Calli’s performance is a testament to her hard work, dedication and talent,” said Rene Leo E. Ordonez, Ph.D., professor and coordinator of graduate programs in business at SOU. “Scoring in the top 1% speaks volumes about her capabilities and commitment to excellence. While her success reflects positively on our MBA program, her individual effort and drive truly stand out.”

Pelkey lives in Grants Pass and is enrolled in SOU’s Online MBA Program, which was launched in 2017 to meet the needs of students in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. The fully online program has grown significantly and currently serves approximately 150 students from Oregon, Washington and throughout the United States. Designed for flexibility and accessibility, the program operates year-around across five accelerated seven-week terms, allowing students to complete the degree in as few as 16 months.

“The MBA program at SOU provided a challenging yet rewarding journey, where the unwavering support of the faculty and my dedication were key factors in achieving a top 1% score nationwide on the MBA field test,” Pelkey said. “This recognition affirms that hard work and perseverance can lead to significant accomplishments. As I prepare to embark on the (Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing) program, I am eager to combine my passions for business and healthcare to make a meaningful impact in the future.”

In addition to the online format, SOU offers its MBA program in a traditional, face-to-face format on the Ashland campus. The in-person option provides a more immersive, classroom-based experience for students who prefer direct interaction with faculty and peers, while maintaining the same high standards of academic rigor and applied learning.

Pelkey’s success highlights the strength of SOU’s MBA curriculum and reinforces the university’s commitment to academic excellence and student achievement. The MBA program emphasizes real-world application, innovation and leadership development, preparing graduates to navigate the complexities of today’s global business environment.

Pelkey’s accomplishments have joined a growing list of student success stories that continue to elevate the reputation of SOU’s School of Business, which prepares future leaders in business and beyond.

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Open textbooks at SOU

SOU faculty members take lead role in open textbook project

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Open Oregon Educational Resources, a statewide initiative that promotes textbook affordability for students at Oregon colleges and universities, is releasing four new open textbooks whose authors include four Southern Oregon University faculty members and a student in the Criminology and Criminal Justice program.

“Our goal with these projects is to provide rigorous and scholarly – yet accessible and equity-minded – studies in contemporary criminology and criminal justice for our students,” said lead authors and SOU Criminal Justice faculty members Shanell Sanchez and Jessica Peterson. “By making this material freely accessible online, we remove financial barriers for our students and also provide classroom materials that instructors can fully adopt or modify to supplement their course materials.”

The SOU open textbook project started in September 2021, when Open Oregon Educational Resources received a grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) to develop openly-licensed materials with an equity lens in criminal justice. The project targeted high-enrollment courses in a discipline where high-quality, deliberately inclusive open textbooks were not available.

As two of the project’s lead authors, Sanchez and Peterson served as primary decision-makers about textbook content and course design. Contributing authors including SOU faculty members Kelly Szott and Alison Burke, and undergraduate student Catherine Venegas-Garcia, brought their diverse expertise and experiences to the project. An instructional designer from Open Oregon Educational Resources also helped guide the course design with an emphasis on inclusion and student engagement.

Two of the open textbooks are already publicly available:

  • “Introduction to Criminology: An Equity Lens,” is co-authored by Peterson and Western Oregon University faculty member Taryn VanderPyl, with contributing authors Mauri Matsuda and Curt Sobolewski of Portland State University, Jennifer Moreno of WOU.
  • “Inequality and Interdependence: Social Problems and Social Justice,” is authored by Oregon Coast Community College instructor Kimberly Puttman, with contributing authors Szott of SOU, Patricia Antoine of Chemeketa Community College, independent scholar Kate Burrows, Bethany Grace Howe of the University of Oregon, antiracist educator Nora Karena and Avery Temple.

The other textbooks are expected to be available soon:

  • “Race, Crime and Injustice” authored by SOU’s Sanchez and edited by Peterson, with contributing authors Szott, Venegas-Garcia and WOU’s VanderPyl.
  • “Introduction to the American Criminal Justice System: An Equity Lens,” is co-authored by Roxie Supplee of Central Oregon Community College and Megan Gonzalez of Chemeketa Community College, with co-authors Burke of SOU, Sam Arungwa of Utah State University, Irvin Brown of Chemeketa, Whitney Head-Potter and Eric Wilkes.

“SOU is a leader in creating Criminal Justice open textbooks with an equity lens,” said Holly Gabriel, an open access librarian at SOU’s Hannon Library who assists faculty in locating open course materials and helps coordinate projects from Open Oregon Educational Resources.

“Starting with our faculty writing the ‘Introduction to the American Criminal Justice System’ in 2019, and now with four faculty authors on the current project, SOU is leading the way in creating inclusive open materials for students,” she said. “These textbooks will be shared online with an open license, making them free for people to use across North America and all across the world.”

Open Oregon Educational Resources is a state-funded effort to support the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) in the state’s community colleges and universities. It collaborates with various institutions and offers grants and training to support faculty members who develop open textbooks and other Open Educational Resource course materials.

Open textbooks – typically available online – are released under open licenses that allow them to be used at no cost by educators, students and others.

“As an undergraduate student, I have seen the impact that textbook prices have on my peers,” said Venegas-Garcia, the SOU student who served as a contributing author on the project. “Free and low-cost textbooks are important because they allow students to engage with impactful and detailed resources without spending a significant amount of money.”

Another Criminology and Criminal Justice student at SOU, Kayla Gaches, said she hadn’t realized that some of the textbooks she has used in her classes have been Open Educational Resource materials, but she acknowledged their effect on her bottom line.

“Whenever I see that I do not have to purchase a textbook, it is like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders because I can allocate my textbook fund elsewhere, so I truly appreciate that we have this opportunity,” Gaches said.

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Elementary students from Kids Unlimited Academy visit SOU Ashland.

New SOU pathway program reaches into elementary schools

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(Ashland, Ore.) — A Southern Oregon University Spanish instructor’s personal initiative has brought to campus more than 120 elementary school students from underserved backgrounds over the past month, offering the children an up-close look at college life and the opportunity to see themselves as future students in a post-secondary setting.

The “Vision to the Future” initiative – introduced this spring by Lady Vanderlip, a senior instructor of Spanish at SOU – offers campus tours and activities to primarily Latino/a/x students from various Rogue Valley elementary schools. The program is intended to inspire and motivate the students by showing them that higher education can be a realistic goal for them.

“This program has been my little ‘dream passion’ that started when my children were attending primary school and I would invite their classes to visit my classroom,” Vanderlip said. “It was and is so important to me for them to see a person that looks and sounds like them being in a position of influence – in this case, as an educator influencing the future leaders of this nation.”

The Vision to the Future initiative differs from SOU’s existing pathway programs, in that it reaches students in primary grades to plant a seed of curiosity. For example, the Pirates to Raiders program – SOU’s first pathway program for Hispanic students – focuses instead on introducing middle and high school students from the Phoenix-Talent School District to the realities of a college experience.

SOU’s more established pathway programs create partnerships between students, their families, their school districts and SOU to ensure that the students remain on track for high school graduation and college. The students take appropriate college preparatory courses, attend program-related events and sign contracts, promising to stay on track to graduate on time.

The goals of the Vision to the Future program are more fundamental.

“Many students from an underprivileged background may not have the opportunity to envision themselves attending university due to various barriers, including lack of exposure and resources,” said Vincent Smith, Ph.D., Dean of the SOU School of Science & Business. “This program seeks to bridge that gap by providing a first-hand glimpse into the world of academia, encouraging students to dream big and realize their potential.”

Primary school students for the Vision to the Future tours are drawn from local schools with high populations of Latino/a/x students, including Phoenix-Talent, Medford and eventually, the Eagle Point and White City school districts. Tours in late April and early May were held for students from Phoenix Elementary School, Talent Elementary School, Medford’s Wilson Elementary School and the Kids Unlimited Academy, a Medford charter school.

Vanderlip also gives students from her SOU Spanish classes the opportunity to participate in the tours, practicing their Spanish skills and gaining insights into their university. Student Monica Kyle, who is seeking bachelor’s degrees in Fine Arts and Spanish, said she took part in two of the recent tours.

“In doing so, I had the chance to practice my Spanish skills, earn volunteer hours and learn more about the SOU campus,” Kyle said. “However, the experience also left me asking some very important questions, like how can the SOU community be even more welcoming and inclusive to young students, specifically those learning English as a second language?”

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SOU Ashland graduate Thilini Dissanyake stars in "Earnest" at OSF

Recent SOU alumna stars in OSF production of “Earnest”

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Sitting in the backseat of her family’s car after a third-grade play, Thilini Dissanayake surprised her mother with a bold declaration: “I wanna be famous.” That moment – following her turn as the Little Red Hen in her class play – sparked a love for acting that would lead Dissanayake to Southern Oregon University and now to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where she stars this season as Cecily in “The Importance of Being Earnest.”

SOU Ashland alumna Thilini Dissanayake as Cecily Cardew and Hao Feng as Algernon Moncrieff in The Importance of Being Earnest.

Photos by Jenny Graham, courtesy of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

“Understandably, (my mom) shot that down – the nomadic and uncertain career of a professional actor was not the future my immigrant parents would have ever dreamed of for me,” Dissanayake said. “Nevertheless, every musical, play, workshop and summer camp I did over the next 10 years made me hungrier.”

By her junior year of high school, Dissanayake had made a decision: “I would never forgive myself if I didn’t at least give it the old college try.”

She arrived at SOU in fall 2019 and graduated in fall 2023 with a bachelor of fine arts degree in Theatre Performance. Though she had options, SOU stood out for its conservatory-style training, professional partnerships and affordability.

“SOU was the only school that offered a competitive, conservatory-style training, distinguished faculty, internships and apprenticeships with a professional equity theater and an education I could afford due to scholarships and in-state tuition,” she said. “It was also important to me to attend an accredited university with other robust programs available rather than just a conservatory, in case I ever decided to change career paths.”

Now at OSF, Dissanayake draws directly on the training she received at SOU. Over two years, she immersed herself in a rigorous curriculum: acting, movement, voice, Shakespeare, clowning, dialects, business of acting and more.

“It’s remarkable how applicable my training has been, working at OSF so far,” she said.

In “Jane Eyre,” her OSF debut, she performed in the outdoor Elizabethan Theatre as Young Jane and Adele.

“My voice and movement training was crucial to creating large choices for my characters and to audibly project in a venue that holds over a thousand people,” she said.

In “The Importance of Being Earnest” – set in the 1890s Malay Peninsula, with a regular slate of performances now through October – Dissanayake plays Cecily, with a custom-built accent that blends RP British, South Indian and Malaysian speech patterns. She credits her ability to shape those nuances to SOU’s coursework in the International Phonetic Alphabet and accents.

“My education at SOU has done a phenomenal job preparing me for professional theater,” she said. “I have worked with several peers my age who have recently graduated from elite undergraduate theater programs such as NYU, Carnegie Mellon and even graduate programs such as Yale and UCSD. I can confidently say that SOU Theater’s BFA in performance offers an equally comparable education to those distinguished programs.”

Desdemona Chiang, director of OSF’s “The Importance of Being Earnest,” praised Dissanayake’s skills as an actress.

“Lini was an absolute delight to work with on ‘Earnest,’” Chiang said. “She brought a natural grace and radiance to the role of Cecily, and a strong work ethic to the process. She was dedicated to the role, constantly prepared and eager to explore the work with her scene partners. She was always ready to try, ready to fail, and always in pursuit of something greater, richer and more interesting. I loved her curiosity through the process – she is the kind of actor every director loves to have contributing in the room.”

Dissanayake’s years at SOU were not without challenges – especially during the COVID-era pivot to outdoor instruction.

“My cohort started our BFA in the fall of 2021,” she said. “With social distancing and mask requirements, we spent the first half of our term outside, wearing masks, in tents – yes, tents. “It was ridiculous, but also the best. There was so much grace and positivity because we were all just so grateful to do what we loved in-person again.”

Dissanayake attributes much of her growth to SOU’s dedicated faculty, especially professors Jackie Apodaca, Brendan McMahon and former voice and speech professor Ginger Eckhert.

“I think my time was so impactful in this program because the faculty put so much heart and soul into their students,” she said. “They pushed our strengths, and made us face our weaknesses.

“There was a time with each of these three professors where they pulled me aside while I was struggling and asked, ‘how can I support you?’ When I expressed what I needed, they showed up.”

She singles out Apodaca for her mentorship and advocacy.

“Jackie Apodaca has advocated for me and my peers time and time again,” Dissanayake said. “I cannot thank her enough for the opportunities she has built and provided for her students through (the Ashland New Plays Festival), the OSF Trainee Program and other professional gigs.”

Performing on OSF’s stage today brings Dissanayake full circle.

“The first OSF production I ever saw with my family was their 2012 production of ‘As You Like It’ in the Elizabethan Theater,” she said. “I was so deeply moved to see people who looked like me telling classical stories on that beautiful stage. At 11 years old, I saw a possibility in which the lifestyle I dreamed of was achievable.

“I don’t know if I possess all the words to express the gratitude I feel to be here now,” Dissanayake said. “I know that little Lini would think the world of me, and every day I go to work I hope that there’s a kid out in the audience that thinks, ‘maybe I could do that, too.’”

As she looks to the future, Dissanayake’s dream is simple: to keep doing the work.

“This may not seem like the most grand or ambitious answer, but as I continue to work in professional theater, I’m learning how precious it is to stay booked,” she said. “So long as I continue to be able to make a living telling stories, in whatever capacity that may be, I feel like I’m living the dream.”

Her advice to SOU students? “Be brave, be bold, be humble,” she said. “Your fears and doubts don’t always get smaller, but you can grow bigger to face them. Kindness to yourself and others takes you farthest.”

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Creativity Conference at SOU Ashland set to begin

Creativity Conference at Southern Oregon University set to begin May 15

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(Ashland, Ore.) — The 7th annual Creativity Conference at Southern Oregon University will offer something for everyone in four days of presentations, May 15 through 18. The conference delivers a wealth of information for those who study the science of creativity, seek to leverage research on creative thinking or simply consider themselves to be creative.

The Creativity Conference at SOU features a lineup of more than 100 presenters, with both in-person and virtual events that allow for exhibits, performances and presentations – and attendees – from a variety of countries. It draws many of the world’s leading scholars, researchers and practitioners from the field of creativity, including this year’s five keynote and invited speakers.

“This annual conference brings together internationally renowned speakers, researchers and artists who are leaders in creativity research and application,” said SOU Associate Provost Daniel DeNeui, co-executive director of the conference. “This is an opportunity to learn and imagine, and also to network and build relationships that could have a meaningful impact on the world.”

Participants will be able to join in several applied workshops that feature hands-on activities for developing and using creativity in the workplace. Previous presentations have included “Fostering Creativity Through Virtual Environments” and “Attitudes toward creative people and innovators.”

All sessions – remote and in-person – will be accessible via livestream, ensuring inclusivity and engagement. Archived presentations will be available for viewing post-event.

The 2025 conference will feature in-person sessions all day Thursday through Saturday, May 15-17. A full day of remote sessions will be featured on Sunday, May 18. The in-person featured speakers will include:

  • Denis Dumas, Ph.D., who will be presenting his research on the creativity and psychology of stage and screen actors;
  • International scholar Todd Lubart, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the Université Paris Descartes, who will offer a 75-year retrospective on creativity research;
  • Laura McBain – designer, educator and managing director of the Stanford d.school – who will address how human-centered design can be used to shape more preferable futures;
  • International scholar Tuuli Mattelmäki, associate professor in design at Aalto University in Finland, who will present research on how creative practices stimulate eco-social change; and
  • Ivonne Chand O’Neal, Ph.D. – the founder and principal of creativity and arts impact research firm MUSE Research, LLC – who will discuss culturally responsive storytelling in opera, and its impact on artistic creativity.

Attendees can expect a range of formats, including 60-minute panel discussions, 40- to 50-minute individual presentations, 15-minute “boom talk” sessions that deliver concise insights and engaging poster presentations. Opportunities for interactive dialogue and exchange will be offered in each format.

The Creativity Conference at SOU welcomes sponsorships from individuals and organizations. For more information or to register for this year’s conference, visit soucreativityconference.com. Conference co-executive director Daniel DeNeui can be reached at creativity@sou.edu.

About the Creativity Conference and Southern Oregon University
The Creativity Conference, sponsored by Southern Oregon University, is located in beautiful Ashland, Oregon. Ashland is home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, a burgeoning wine industry and an array of outdoor recreational opportunities, providing the perfect backdrop for creativity and innovation.

Southern Oregon University is a medium-sized campus that provides comprehensive educational opportunities with a strong focus on student success and intellectual creativity. Located in vibrant Ashland, Oregon, SOU remains committed to diversity and inclusion for all students on its environmentally sustainable campus. Connected learning programs taught by a host of exceptional faculty provide quality, innovative experiences for students. Visit sou.edu.

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Tacit knowledge grant awarded to SOU Ashland's Boscoe

SOU’s Boscoe awarded second “tacit knowledge” grant

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Bernadette Boscoe, an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department at Southern Oregon University, has been awarded a second grant to fund her study of tacit knowledge in research settings – gathering, storing and retrieving the unspoken practices of academic teams that sometimes are lost when a project is disrupted or ends.

The latest grant, from the National Science Foundation, totals about $164,000 over two years, beginning July 1.

Boscoe received a $250,000 grant last fall from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to help fund her creation of a Large Language Model (LLM) of artificial intelligence to archive the protocols of scientific groups researching environmental science at SOU, astronomy at UCLA and violin acoustics at Cornell University. The tacit knowledge archive, if successfully developed, would benefit researchers in those and other academic disciplines by preventing the loss of unstated practices in research labs when participants leave the projects.

Research funded by the NSF grant is closely related to that funded by the Sloan grant, but is focused more on what Boscoe calls “the technical tool-building side” and looks exclusively at astronomy research.

“The Sloan grant is more (about) using three research group spokes and doing an investigation of the tacit knowledge capture,” Boscoe said. “The NSF grant doesn’t look at that – it is more about how we can improve astronomy workflows and tools.”

Boscoe is using Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), an AI framework that pairs an LLM with an information retrieval system to improve accuracy and relevance of resulting data. She is working with SOU computer science graduate Chandler Campbell to build the project’s RAG-LLM tool, called AquiLLM – named after the constellation Aquila.

“Research groups often face challenges managing and accessing work such as paper drafts, research experiments, plots, and meeting notes, especially as these resources grow over time and researchers transition in and out of projects,” an NSF abstract on the project said.

“This project benefits research groups by offering a way to use natural language to ask questions about their data, yielding links to relevant documents.”

Boscoe is a computer and information scientist who builds and researches infrastructures and tools to help domain scientists do their work. She earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in painting from the Pratt Institute in New York, an associate degree in computer science from Northampton Community College in Pennsylvania, a master’s degree in mathematics from California State University-Northridge and a Ph.D. in information science from UCLA.

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SOU Ashland Board of Trustees member Micelle Fuentes

SOU student joins Board of Trustees

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Southern Oregon University student Michelle Fuentes, a Criminal Justice and Sociology major from Central Point, has been appointed by Gov. Tina Kotek and confirmed Wednesday by the Oregon Senate to serve on the university’s Board of Trustees.

Fuentes, whose two-year term begins July 1, will succeed Garima Sharma as one of two undergraduate student members of the 17-member board.

She is a nontraditional student – a mother of two – and is pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Sociology and Criminology & Criminal Justice. She is the recipient of a Ford Foundation Scholarship, is a Policy Council member for HeadStart and has served in a variety of leadership roles, on- and off-campus.

Fuentes has served as a detention specialist for the Jackson County Juvenile Services Department, coordinator of SOU’s Pirates to Raiders pathway program for Latino/a/x youth, instructor for Academia Latina and Juntos en Familia programs in SOU Youth Programs, summer school assistant at Phoenix High School, teacher’s assistant at the Southern Oregon Education Service District’s Espial Child Environment, receptionist at Asante heath system and after-school aid at Kids Unlimited. She is serving a policy and advocacy internship with the nonprofit Our Children Oregon and will begin work April 21 as a family coordinator for state Department of Human Services.

“As I continue my own education, I will take what I have learned from my students, my own experience growing up and the mentors that have helped me along, and prepare myself to better support my community,” Fuentes said.

She is the second undergraduate member of the SOU board to be appointed and then confirmed this year by the Oregon Senate, following Ryan Goodrich in February.

“Student members provide a unique and valuable perspective on the Board of Trustees,” said Sheila Clough, the board’s chair. “Michelle is an incredibly accomplished student with an obvious commitment to public service. We look forward to welcoming her onto SOU’s governing board.”

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Taran Cross is bound for Oxford after receiving bachelor's degrees at SOU Ashland

Unorthodox path: recent SOU graduate bound for Oxford

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Achieving success wasn’t the issue for Taran Cross. He had risen to the position of vice president with a Medford-based healthcare technology company, despite dropping out of college soon after he began back in 2007. But he had unfinished business and higher ambitions.

“I dreamed of going to Oxford as a kid and, around 2018, I started having these profound feelings of regret that I hadn’t been the sort of person who could accomplish those dreams,” Cross said. “I felt like the opportunities of my life had passed me by and, despite having a successful career, that I had squandered my potential.

“Applying to SOU was my way of rejecting that negative thinking. I decided that I wasn’t going to let the failures of my past define me, and live the rest of my life with regret. If I wanted to go to Oxford, I was the only person who could stop me.”

Cross applied for and was accepted into SOU’s Innovation and Leadership Program for working professionals in January 2021, and graduated last spring with a pair of bachelor’s degrees – in Innovation and Leadership, and in History. And as for that dream of attending Oxford University? Well, soon after earning his bachelor’s degrees he applied for admission into a master’s degree program in history at Oxford – and learned recently that he has been accepted.

“I didn’t often tell people that was my goal while at SOU because, even to me, it seemed far-fetched,” Cross said. “It honestly felt almost silly to articulate. How could a former college dropout be accepted to the best university in the world?

“However, the loftiness of the goal drove me to put everything I had into every class I attended, because I knew that the cards were stacked against me. I think success often requires both luck and just enough delusion to believe something is possible without being oblivious to the difficulties that lie ahead.”

The first missteps, and moving forward
Cross acknowledges that his academic pathway, like those of many students in the multidisciplinary Innovation and Leadership Program, was “a bit unorthodox.” The SOU program offers an accelerated bachelor’s degree – completed either in-person or fully online – for working professionals hoping to develop skills in academic areas such as organizational leadership, project management, systems thinking, communication, emerging media and data management.

Cross first enrolled in college following his high school graduation in 2007, but dropped out early in 2008. “Roughly 15 years passed and while I regretted failing in college, I didn’t really have a strong desire to go back until around 2018 or 2019,” he said.

Meanwhile, he learned on the fly and developed a career. He took a short-term job at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival shortly after leaving college, then several months later began the first in a succession of technology-related positions – first at a computer forensic services firm, then back at OSF and then at a Medford computer support and services business. He began as an applications support specialist in 2014 at PLEXIS Healthcare Systems, and by March 2019 he had risen to vice president of client and information services at the Medford-based company.

But he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something more. He was nagged by his failed attempt at college, had a growing commitment to self-improvement and felt that there must be a more meaningful role for him. So he took the first step toward a return to college, registering in fall 2020 for a single, lower-division class in SOU’s History Department to measure his merit as a student.

“I didn’t anticipate how much I would love that class or the process of examining historical sources,” Cross said. “Professor (Sean) McEnroe’s love of history is genuinely infectious, and I quickly realized that this is what I wanted to do with the rest of my life – and that SOU was the place to train me how to do it.”

He began looking into the best avenue for working on his degree while continuing in his position at PLEXIS, and discovered the university’s INL program. He set up a call with Moneeka Settles, the program’s coordinator, and realized immediately that it was his best route toward academic success and improvement as a business leader.

“She ended up inviting me to join her Organizational Communication class, which started about an hour later (after the call),” Cross said. “I felt once again I had stumbled into the perfect place.”

Two degrees, and much more
The Innovation and Leadership Program provided the academic pathway that Cross needed as a working professional, but it was his love of history that motivated him. Even as he was working his way up the corporate ladder, Cross was captivated by history – particularly the biographies of presidents and other historical figures who have exercised power. At the time, he visualized himself communicating that type of “popular history” to the general public.

“However, SOU exposed me to the variety of historical fields and their corresponding methods,” Cross said. “It was in classes like professor McEnroe’s ‘Global History of Slavery’ that I started gravitating toward subaltern (lower status) studies.

“It was one of those really life-changing classes that shifted my perspective and interests. I now fully intend to make the study of slavery my life’s work, looking for what Jenny Sharpe (author of ‘Ghosts Of Slavery: A Literary Archaeology of Black Women’s Lives’) calls ‘the stories that are being withheld’ in the historical narrative.”

Cross also gained appreciation for historiography – what he calls “the history of the study of history” – and his capstone project taught him to search archives and manuscripts to find “little pieces of forgotten history” that add texture to a larger tapestry.

“I discovered this new interest in Professor (Hannah) Archambault’s classes, where she does a phenomenal job getting students into historiography,” Cross said. “One of the main things I find exciting about pursuing history as a career is participating in these debates and making a serious contribution to the historiography.”

Those pursuits of historical knowledge were complemented by courses Cross took in the Innovation and Leadership Program, which focused on skills such as effective communication, organizational understanding and emotional intelligence.

“I think Moneeka (Settles) has done a remarkable job creating a program that is not only accessible to returning students, which is no simple task, but provides the exact kind of training every individual needs to be successful in the modern workforce,” he said.

In the end, the former college dropout graduated summa cum laude – with highest honors – in last June’s SOU Commencement ceremony, with bachelor’s degrees in Innovation and Leadership, and History.

“He did very well in both programs, studied abroad for a semester, and after graduating, applied to graduate school,” Settles said. “His acceptance at Oxford is unprecedented.”

Graduate studies in the UK
Cross’s study abroad program in 2023 was at University of Nottingham, about 100 miles north of Oxford. He expects that experience to be helpful in his transition to life and studies at Oxford University, where he will begin his master’s degree program in October at Oxford’s Corpus Christi College, studying British and European history of 1700 to 1850.

But just getting his foot in the door of the English-speaking world’s oldest university was a “practically indescribable” accomplishment. Cross felt he “left everything out on the field” when he applied to the Oxford program, but he still was uncertain how it would play out. Then the acceptance email arrived.

“I was actually in a work meeting when the email came in, and had to excuse myself to leap around my office in joy and legitimately cry with happiness,” he said. “I was so emotional, both because this is such an unbelievable opportunity and because I proved to myself that I am capable of accomplishing my dreams.”

His ultimate plan is to earn his master’s degree from Oxford, then apply to the university’s doctoral program in history, before finding a position focused on research and writing about British colonialism in the Caribbean – particularly around slavery and the experiences of the African community.

The entire Oxford experience promises to be the second-most exciting of the year for Cross.

“I’m getting married later this summer to my loving and supportive partner, Hayley Dixon, who will be joining me in Oxford along with our wonderful, goofball dog, Gus,” he said.

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Distinguished Teaching Award recipient Alena Ruggerio at SOU Ashland

SOU’s Ruggerio receives Distinguished Teaching Award

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Alena Ruggerio,  a professor of communication at Southern Oregon University, has been named the recipient of the 2025 Distinguished Teaching Award by the Western States Communication Association (WSCA), one of the leading academic organizations in the field of communication studies.

The WSCA Distinguished Teaching Award is presented annually and honors educators who demonstrate excellence in teaching, innovative instruction and a sustained impact on student learning and engagement. Ruggerio was recognized at the association’s annual conference for more than two decades of transformative instruction, mentorship and leadership in inclusive education.

“For her exceptional contributions to communication education, her scholarly advancement of inclusive pedagogy, and her unwavering commitment to teaching for liberation, mutual humanity and engaged citizenship, we are honored to present the WSCA Distinguished Teaching Award to Dr. Alena Ruggerio,” award presenter Ashley Givens, Associate Dean of Communication & Performing Arts at Salt Lake Community College, said in the official announcement.

Known across the SOU campus for her signature closing, the “Ruggerio Benediction” — “Go forth and use wisely every heartbeat” — Ruggerio encourages her students to dedicate their energy to meaningful communication. “The goal is to encourage my students to put the heartbeats they’ve chosen to spend with me to wise use in communicating for liberation, communicating our mutual humanity and communicating citizenship,” Ruggerio said.

Ruggerio’s teaching portfolio spans foundational and advanced courses in public speaking, persuasion, political communication, gender studies and more. She is celebrated for employing student-centered learning practices, including “Question of the Day” discussions, and learning contracts that empower students to shape their educational journeys. Her creative teaching practices include sensory-based chapter facilitation and community-centered speech competitions, which tie academic theory to social impact.

In addition to her teaching, Ruggerio contributes extensively to the field of communication education. She has published influential course syllabi and co-facilitated university-wide initiatives in antiracism and curriculum decolonization. Her work integrates feminist rhetorical theory and international perspectives, including leading study abroad programs in Spain and Greece.

“Alena embodies the ideal of a teacher-scholar-mentor,” said Andrew Kenneth Gay, dean of the School of Arts & Communication at SOU. “Her classrooms are not just sites of knowledge transmission but spaces of transformation. She challenges students to think critically, care deeply and act courageously. We are incredibly proud of her and grateful for the profound impact she has on our university community.”

Ruggerio has previously received SOU’s Distinguished Teaching Award and Distinguished Service Award, as well as national recognition from AHA International. She is the editor of “Media Depictions of Brides, Wives and Mothers,” and co-author of “Feminism in Practice: Communication Strategies for Making Change.”

The Western States Communication Association represents scholars, educators and practitioners across a wide range of communication fields, including public speaking, interpersonal communication, health and environmental communication, and studies of identity and difference. Founded at a speech and debate tournament, WSCA continues to evolve in step with the discipline, recognizing outstanding contributions to research, service and teaching in the Western region of the U.S.

For more information, please contact Michele Fulkerson, office specialist for SOU’s Department of Communication, Media & Cinema, at (541) 552-6669 or fulkersom@sou.edu.

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