The revised plan proposes cutting $9.8 million over the next three years, down from the $10.4 million proposed earlier this month. Just over $5 million in cuts would take place this fiscal year.
Some programs previously slated to be cut, such as economics, outdoor adventure leadership and the Native American studies minor, would now be retained, following strong community support.
But the new plan cuts elsewhere, such as the mathematics major and marketing minor.
At a Board of Trustees meeting on Wednesday, SOU President Rick Bailey acknowledged the plan will never please everyone.
"I'm not happy about the plan. No one's happy about the plan, and we're not happy that we are in the condition we're in," he said. "However, I want to remind us that we are caretakers of the institution, so I want to share with you why we have to do something."
The university’s fiscal crisis is due to federal funding uncertainty, rising costs, declining enrollment and what Bailey called inadequate state support.
"We need to do a much better job by our core customers — our students," Faculty Senate Chair Dennis Slattery said at the meeting. "Our core customers over the past few years have been voting with their feet, going other directions, finding other products that better meet their needs."
The new proposal also increases the number of affected positions to 67, which includes vacancies, retirements and outright eliminations.
That's in addition to the 82 full-time equivalent positions cut two years ago under the university’s earlier budget initiative, known as SOU Forward.
Melissa Anderson, president of the teaching faculty union, said most of the proposed job cuts are in academic areas.
"We are concerned that the deep cuts to programs, faculty and academic support staff will further hurt our enrollment and our ability to generate revenue," she said.
"When staff are cut, the workload does not disappear," added Sage TeBeest, president of SEIU 503 Sublocal 84, which represents classified staff. "It lands on those who remain. Change fatigue, employee depletion and deteriorating morale are already widespread. If this plan accelerates those conditions, recovery will stall, no matter what the balance sheet says."
Public comments during the meeting centered largely on the chemistry department, which would be clustered with biology and environmental science, policy and sustainability; the proposed transition of the Honors College into an Honors Program; and support for the Native American Studies and Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies programs.
Despite having endured what he called almost "a state of constant crisis" during his tenure at the university, Bailey retained his trademark optimism Wednesday.
"The environment we're operating in is unprecedented, and so it will be institutions that look at that head on, with an open mind and an open heart and a sobering look at what reality dictates, that are going to be in the best position to thrive long term," he said. "We have to be one of those institutions that does that."
The Board of Trustees will vote on the plan on Tuesday at 5 p.m.
JPR is licensed to Southern Oregon University, but our newsroom operates independently. Guided by our journalistic standards and ethics, we cover the university like any other organization in the region. No university official reviewed or edited this story before it was published.
