After weeks of work, Southern Oregon University has unveiled its proposal to cut more than $20 million through what it calls the SOU Vitality Plan. The proposal drew praise from trustees Tuesday night but also concern from students and employees, who questioned whether the cuts would stabilize the university or further weaken it.
The proposal would eliminate three academic programs, reorganize departments and reduce the equivalent of 66 full-time positions. University leaders say the changes are needed to keep SOU financially viable and avoid running out of cash by June 2027.
At a community meeting Tuesday, attendees criticized the proposal to cut eight out of 15 business services positions.
Sage TeBeest, program coordinator for creative arts and president of SEIU 503 Sublocal 84, which represents classified staff at the university, pointed to previous cuts that were made to the department.
"Now we’re looking to do that again in a time where the whole reason we’re here is because we didn’t know we had a $15 million budget hole," she said. "That’s telling me we don’t have enough people looking at the books."
SOU has faced multiple fiscal crises in recent years, but President Rick Bailey promises the university will more closely track the plan's implementation.
"Every month, this campus is going to get an update. Our board is going to get an update," he said. "That update will be 'Hey, here’s what we projected for month-by-month cash flow, and here’s what it looks like with us implementing the Vitality Plan.'"
Bailey said the university will also have a full-time project manager to oversee implementation and accountability.
Still, many attendees worried about the cumulative effect of repeated cuts on students and employees.
Tom Fagerholm, assistant professor in the theater department, warned about the possibility of "death by a thousand cuts."
"We're at a precipice, at least in theater," he said. "Any more losses is likely to start a cascading event for enrollment."
Indeed, Bailey said at the meeting that fewer students are currently registered for fall classes than at the same point last year.
Another attendee, who didn't want to be named, said he works in a program proposed for elimination and criticized the uncertainty surrounding staffing decisions.
"It's that yo-yo, over and over again, that just crushes the staff," he said. "It doesn't seem to me that there is a right answer, a perfect answer to any of this, but whatever we choose, I just ask that we act decisively and finish one of the plans."
The Vitality Plan lays out how many positions would be eliminated in each department but does not specify which employees would be affected.
Bailey said during a news conference after the meeting that the university must follow collective bargaining agreements before identifying individual layoffs. He said he expects to have more details on the layoffs in mid-July.
The implementation schedule proposes laying off three faculty and seven staff this month, 10 staff next month and so on.
Trustees struck a more optimistic tone during Tuesday night's board meeting, praising Bailey's work and the amount of community feedback the proposal incorporates.
"I've heard from, I think it's fair to say, hundreds of people about this plan and the direction," Trustee Dee Anne Everson said. "The whole shift that occurred in the last day and a half has been one of hope and resilience and belief."
Without the Vitality Plan, Bailey said, the university projects enrollment will decline 10% this fall and the university will end June 2028 with a $5.4 million deficit.
If the plan is fully implemented, Vice President for Finance and Administration Carson Howell said the university would remain financially solvent through fiscal year 2029.
Yet, the Vitality Plan isn’t final.
There are a series of committee meetings this week before SOU’s Board of Trustees votes on it on Thursday. Bailey said there is no time to revise the proposal before then but emphasized that the board will decide whether to approve it.
If approved, the changes must be implemented by June 2027, when university officials project SOU would otherwise run out of cash.
Meanwhile, at a Wednesday meeting, the state's Emergency Board will consider releasing the first half of $15 million in emergency funding intended to keep SOU financially viable through the upcoming fiscal year.
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.
