Deloitte Consulting has recommended $20 million in cuts at SOU in order for the university to stay afloat. Proposed changes include sunsetting academic programs like music and gender, sexuality and women’s studies.
At Tuesday’s listening session, student Em Anderson spoke about how frustrating it’s been to attend SOU and experience repeated cuts over the years.
"I have met lifelong friends, mentors and a partner here. I have gotten into my dream nursing school here. I exist in a strong and supportive community because of SOU," she said. "At the same time, I have constantly had to prepare myself for the next hit, to live in fear that those friends and professors who I cherish will be seen as dead weight and cut."
Student Body Vice President Lillian Alexander agreed.
"This institution has transformed from a community into a place where students are forced to stick with it. There is no option out for a majority of students, myself included," she said. "You are begging for us to stay while cutting everything we hold dear and decreasing the quality of services we are receiving."
SOU has a quick timeline to respond to Deloitte's report in order to receive $15 million in emergency funding from the state.
But speakers feared these proposed changes would harm SOU, not save it.
Music department chair Jerron Jorgensen said the program is valuable.
"Eliminating our music program is not cost saving, it is asset destroying," he said. "Once this music program is gone, it cannot be rebuilt cheaply or quickly."
Co-chair of the Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies Department Carey Jean Sojka said Deloitte's calculations about the program are incorrect, and its work is essential.
"GSWS at SOU is 45 years old, and we grow more relevant every day," she said. "Students need us and show the value of our work through enrollment. They also tell us all the time about the personally meaningful value of GWSW, not only to them, but to our entire campus."
Deloitte's report attributes many of SOU's financial pressures to external factors, including shifts in federal funding and fewer students enrolling in college. It also notes Oregon ranks 46th in state funding per four-year student.
The report isn’t final. The university’s Board of Trustees will vote on it Friday. All university changes must be completed by June 2027.
At the meeting, the Faculty Senate introduced three resolutions, asking the Board of Trustees to delay its Friday vote on the report, commission an independent audit of the institution and impose an administrative hiring freeze.
Although a long-term plan for fiscal sustainability is a requirement for the university to receive the state emergency money, State Rep. Pam Marsh (D - Jackson County) said Deloitte's recommendations should be considered as simply input.
"Nobody likes having an external authority devise a plan and stick it down your throat. That's sort of the kiss of death," she said in an interview Wednesday. "And that was never what was intended. What was intended was to be able to use a consultant to inform the university, to confirm some of the numbers, to provide ideas about how this could work out. And SOU has got to do the hard work of taking input from that source and other sources and creating a plan and then implementing it."
She also disagreed with Deloitte's assessment that SOU must follow its recommendations or else face winding down.
At a protest Tuesday, Sage TeBeest — program coordinator for the creative arts and president of SEIU 503 Sublocal 84, which represents classified staff at the university — said it's unfortunate this process must happen before a statewide evaluation of higher education is completed.
A community coalition is organizing a public forum on May 6 at 6 p.m. at the Medford public library to discuss the university's future.
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.
