Welcome to SOU

The University

Southern Oregon University (SOU) is a contemporary public liberal arts and sciences university with selected professional programs at the bachelor‘s and master‘s levels. It is one of seven universities in the Oregon University System (OUS). Its purpose is to provide intellectual and personal growth through quality education. Southern emphasizes critical thinking, career preparation, and capacity to live and lead in a multicultural, global society. The University‘s student-to-faculty ratio of 19:1 is ideal for undergraduate instruction. Classes are taught by faculty with the highest degrees in their fields (93 percent) in a friendly, service-oriented culture. An Accelerated Baccalaureate Degree Program and other special opportunities and certificates are also available.

SOU serves the whole of southern Oregon and the northernmost counties of California. The University is a major partner in the economic, cultural, and environmental developments of this vast area, offering students valuable opportunities to participate. Southern is the OUS-designated Center of Excellence in the Fine and Performing Arts, and it has emerging strengths in scientific fields and selected professional programs important to the region and state. SOU‘s rising national reputation is based on its faculty‘s notable research and creative talents, as well as its practical liberal learning. Students get valuable hands-on experiences in research and community projects that complement their classroom, laboratory, and studio learning. Southern is one of twenty institutions across the nation selected for membership in the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC). It is engaged internationally through a strong proportion of students from other nations, many exchange programs, and longstanding sister university alliances (the flagship being the Universidad de Guanajuato, Mexico).

Southern‘s main campus in Ashland is largely residential in character, whether students live on campus or in Ashland‘s university-friendly neighborhoods. On-campus housing includes three complexes with residence halls and superb dining, family housing in Old Mill Village with childcare service, and a facility for visiting groups participating in Southern‘s educational enrichment offerings. SOU serves a growing number of students who commute from Grants Pass, Oregon, and Redding, California, in addition to providing many educational programs and services at the Medford Campus. Southern has fruitful and growing partnerships with community colleges, especially Rogue Community College (RCC) and the College of the Siskiyous, and with such universities as Oregon Health & Science University.

The Region

Southern Oregon University was ranked twentieth in the nation by Outside Magazine (2003) as one of the “coolest” places to study, live, and work. The region is a uniquely diverse geographic, geological, and ecological area. It is distinguished by the Rogue, Umpqua, and Klamath Rivers; Crater Lake National Park and Shasta National Park; many lakes; and the convergence of three mountain ranges: the Cascades, the Siskiyous, and the Coast Range. Such qualities give rise to the University‘s distinctions in environmental studies, as well as its tremendous recreational opportunities, ranging from golf, rafting, fishing, and sailing to hiking, skiing, biking, horseback riding, and camping.

Art and culture, recreation, tourism, retail sales, natural resources, and the burgeoning healthcare services are the driving forces of the region‘s economy. Technology industries are diversifying the economy as new companies move into the area, start-up firms emerge, and technology advances locally. There are three medical centers that offer world-class healthcare services.

The region hosts five fairs and thirteen festivals, in addition to nearly thirty art galleries and more than two dozen cultural and art museums. The most notable festivals are the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) in Ashland and the Britt Music Festivals in Jacksonville. Among the theater venues for visiting and local performances is Medford‘s Craterian Ginger Rovers Theater. Recreational facilities include 151 public and 110 commercial campgrounds, seventeen golf courses, three racetracks, two ski areas, two ice-skating rinks, and four horse stables. There are sixty-four registered guided tours in southern Oregon.

Ashland and SOU

Southern is located in Ashland at the base of the Siskiyou Mountains in the Rogue Valley. It is a five-hour drive or a one-hour flight from Portland to the north or from San Francisco to the south. With a population of 20,000, the charming town boasts eighty-five restaurants and ninety-three lodging facilities, sixty-six of which are bed and breakfasts. Its restaurants, delis, bakeries, banks, bookstores, ice-cream parlors, vintage movie theater, specialty shops, and clothing stores are within easy walking distance of campus. The annual Ashland Independent Film Festival is a popular attraction. A bicycle path leads from SOU to downtown Ashland and beyond. The city offers an ideal setting for picnics and strolls in its beautiful Lithia Park, with its duck ponds, paths, arboretum, and creek.

Ashland is surrounded by forests, mountains, lakes, and rivers that provide spectacular areas for outdoor sports and ecological studies. Ashland benefits from a mild four-season climate. The average rainfall is twenty inches, less than half that of Portland or Eugene. Although the valley floor is generally free of snow, winter recreational facilities are just a thirty-minute drive away at Mount Ashland Ski and Snowboard Resort. At 7,500 feet elevation, the resort provides day and night skiing and has four chairlifts to twenty-two downhill runs, ranging from beginner to expert. The area has many nearby cross-country ski opportunities in the Siskiyou and Cascade Mountains. Just minutes away, Emigrant Lake offers waterslides, sailing, and a park. Lake-of-the-Woods, located at the base of Mount McLaughlin, is less than an hour‘s drive from campus.

Southern and the community are focal points for rich cultural activities and organizations. Ashland is home for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, one of the top five regional theatres in the nation and one of the top three worldwide rotating repertory theatres with Shakespeare at their core. OSF was created in 1935 by Angus Bowmer, a theatre professor at Southern. The festival draws more than 380,000 patrons annually. The University‘s Schneider Museum of Art (SMA) hosts major art exhibitions and youth programs, and the Center for the Visual Arts (CVA) features artworks by faculty, student, and visiting artists. SOU is home to the Southern Oregon Singers, the Rogue Valley Symphony, and the Chamber Music Concert Series (CMC). Its Music Department also provides frequent concerts and recitals by exceptional faculty and students.

Ashland Campus

Southern occupies a 175-acre campus with fourteen academic buildings, thirteen residence halls, family housing, a student union, and multiuse facilities. All classrooms on campus are accessible to disabled students. Beautifully landscaped grounds and architecturally pleasing buildings provide a pleasant environment for academic endeavors, student club activities, and opportunities to think and study together with peers and faculty. Among the newest facilities are the Computing Services Center (1991), the ACCESS Center for student advisory services (1995), the Schneider Museum of Art addition (1996), and the Center for the Visual Arts (2000). SOU is nearing completion of a major renovation and expansion of Hannon Library. The project will nearly double the size of the library and yield a new learning center with contemporary services and technologies, ample study spaces, seminar rooms, reading areas with fireplaces, and a coffee shop.

Ashland and SOU house many very special facilities and services, such as the nation‘s only Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory and the nationally recognized Jefferson Public Radio (JPR). Southern hosts one of the largest Native American powwows and a popular Hawaiian Luau, both of which are coordinated by student multicultural groups. It offers the only Native American Studies certificate and minor programs in Oregon, in addition to providing a popular education program for Native American youth in the summertime. Among its extensive array of programs for youth is the Academia Latina program for middle school Hispanic and Latino children. Finally, Southern has an established reputation for the size and scope of its extended programs for senior citizens.

Medford Campus

Established in 1984, the Medford Campus provides many of the courses and services available on the main campus in Ashland. The Medford Campus includes degree completion and graduate programs, classrooms, computer labs, registration, academic advising, a bookstore, and distance-learning capabilities.

Accreditation

Southern Oregon University is accredited by the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges. The Department of Chemistry programs have earned approval of the American Chemical Society. The programs of the School of Education are accredited by the Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission. The Department of Music is an accredited member of the National Association of Schools of Music.