President’s Blog
Fall Achievements
January 21, 2008
Now that we’re back for winter and spring terms, I thought I’d list a few of our accomplishments from last fall. We’ve all been very busy—but we also got a lot done! I’m very appreciative of all the hard work that went into these achievements.
Budget and Enrollment
We’re still moving forward with our retrenchment plan. The Blue Ribbon Task Force completed its work to develop a more timely and consultative budget process. Now we have a new Budget Committee that will begin work this month. Retention numbers improved for students who began at SOU in fall 2006, and numbers of new students increased. We still need to meet very challenging enrollment goals for fall 2008, but we’re on track.
Accreditation
After months of work, the campus was ready for our site visit from the Northwest Commission when the team arrived in October. They were very impressed with many aspects of our campus and gave us some strong guidelines for moving ahead. I met with the Commission officially on January 7 in Bellevue, Washington, and we will be receiving our final accreditation letter from them within the next few weeks.
Hiring
We hired a new Alumni Director, Doreen O’Skea, who is already making good things happen for us. And our new Executive Director of Marketing, Christine Florence, started on January 14. The search committee for a new provost made excellent progress in the fall, and top candidates will be coming to campus during winter term. We also have searches underway for an Associate Vice President for Human Resources, an Executive Director of the Schneider Museum of Art, and a Dean of the University Library. Faculty searches are in process for a number of departments, including History, Mathematics, and Criminology and Criminal Justice.
Student Support
The new Enrollment Center opened in Britt, so students now have a one-stop office for financial aid, registration, and other enrollment issues. Many folks have worked hard to make this happen (even when their roofs were leaking). The Center is a great opportunity for us to be more responsive to our students.
With the help of many faculty and staff, we also implemented newly designed Preview Days and Freshman Orientation—experiences designed to attract students to SOU and help them be successful once they’re here.
Medford
Great progress has been made in all aspects of the Medford partnership with RCC. We completed the $2.55 million fundraising effort, and the building itself is still on time and within budget. Planning for the building, with the help of the Higher Education Center leadership team, has also moved along very successfully. We’re on schedule for the fall opening, and a plan for the Higher Education Center will be finished shortly.
CAS Progress
The College of Arts and Sciences’ faculty and staff have worked hard to make the new reorganization come together smoothly and productively. The CAS Chairs' Council is designing an effective "snapshot" to communicate the scope and contributions of each department.
In the fall, the CAS Culture Transition Team sponsored an event to ”Rethink, Redesign, and Reclaim Our Academic Culture.“ This group continues to work with Education Dean Geoff Mills on an all-campus May event to highlight research and scholarship of faculty and students.
The CAS Dean’s Office and the department Office Coordinators have worked together to build an effective infrastructure to manage numerous details of the fiscal and personnel business of CAS.
Campus Community
In the fall, we began a number of initiatives to help bring faculty, staff, and students together as a campus community. Campus Connections meetings are taking place every month for faculty and staff, and we continue the Pizza with the President meetings with students that began last year. Fall celebrations also included the president’s Investiture.
Sustainability
The Sustainability Council continues its energetic and creative efforts. They have worked to connect students and faculty with campus-specific research opportunities that include xeriscaping pilots, photo-voltaic expansion possibilities, assessment of Housing/Food Service waste reduction opportunities, an organic gardening pilot project, and a recycling pilot program during the Homecoming football game.
The group is also developing a sustainability web page, coordinating the first SOU Sustainability Day, and continuing to advance SOU’s participation in the American College Presidents’ Climate Commitment project.
Strategic Planning
We almost came to closure on a new mission statement for the University this fall, and we initiated a number of planning processes connected to the values and commitments of SOU. Plans for areas such as Medford, international initiatives, recruitment and retention, budget processes, and Honors made great progress in the fall.
Grants and Sponsored Programs
I was delighted to see continuing success in our applications for external support. We not only received strong renewal of our McNair Program, but the SOU Laboratory of Anthropology has been awarded numerous contracts to investigate and document cultural artifacts at major construction sites throughout southern Oregon. For other grant news, see my September 4 blog at http://www.sou.edu/president/blog/blog012d.html.
Of course, these are only a few of the achievements from fall 2007. I continue to be delighted at our success and productivity, even while we continue to face an array of challenges. I am deeply grateful to everyone who has worked hard to make these projects and initiatives so successful.
I know this will be a Happy New Year!
Mary Cullinan
