FILE – SOU President Rick Bailey in April 2023.
Jane Vaughan / JPR
Southern Oregon University has suffered a series of financial crises in recent years. This latest is a collision of multiple factors, including what President Rick Bailey calls inadequate state support and Trump administration actions that will slash funding for students.
The proposal would impact about 64 full-time employees. That will include voluntary retirements and leaving vacancies unfilled, but about 20 people would have their jobs eliminated. The proposal also cuts 15 majors — including chemistry, ecology and economics — as well as 11 minors.
At a community meeting on Friday, Bailey said there are a few things the university has failed at during his tenure, including saving money.
“We’ve never been able to put money in reserves, and so because of that, every time there’s a crisis, we have to do something so crazy just to move forward,” he said.
The proposed plan also declares what’s called financial exigency, which is a clause in the faculty union contract. Declaring exigency allows a university to make drastic cuts. The union now has 20 university days to provide feedback on this proposed plan.
Bailey explained the purpose of declaring exigency.
“It’s going to allow us to do the transformative things that we need to do as an institution,” he said. “Let me be very clear. We’re not closing. It’s not bankruptcy. It’s not even close to that, but it is the mechanism that allows for transformation.”
Bailey recently took a voluntary 20% pay cut as part of the university’s cost saving measures.
Earlier this week, the president of the union representing service employees offered to take a 50% salary reduction, if administration would too.
The plan also proposes reducing the equivalent of over 13 full-time employees from the College of Arts and Humanities, more than eight from the College of Natural and Social Sciences, five from the School of Education and one from the School of Business.
Just two years ago, the university adopted a fiscal realignment plan called SOU Forward, which involved cutting 82 full-time equivalent positions, or 13% of university staff.
In a press conference on Friday, Bailey acknowledged that “those savings weren’t necessarily tied to a a well-defined strategic vision,” but said at the time, he hadn’t built up enough trust as a new president to make more drastic changes.
SOU has also dealt with declining enrollment, increased costs for medical and retirement benefits and low student retention.
This new proposed plan would take between three and three-and-a-half years to implement. Bailey said just over $5 million in cuts will take place this fiscal year.
“Everything that’s in this provisional plan I own, so I’ll take responsibility for it. I’ll take the arrows for it. I’ll take the criticism. And I’ll take the ideas,” he said. “What can we do to make this plan better?”
At Friday’s meeting, the biggest pushback came from the Native American Studies program. The plan proposes combining that minor with Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies and Ethnic and Racial Studies.
SOU alumna Lupe Sims, a descendant of the White Mountain Apache Tribe who helped establish the university-sanctioned Indigenous Peoples Day, said the NAS program has been “the top of the chopping block every time.”
“This is not just money. This is our culture. This is who we are,” she said. “This matters, and it is still not clear to me what’s going on with the NAS program. We talk about retention. We want students to be here. We want to belong here.”
Despite the grim news, Bailey ended Friday’s meeting on a hopeful note: that this plan will put SOU in a better long-term position.
“The reason why I am here is because I know that as an institution, we are sitting on a winning lottery ticket,” he said. “I’m sure of it, and there is a future that is better for us, and it’s ahead of us. It is. We can do this.”
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Jane Vaughan is a reporter with Jefferson Public Radio. This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
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