Southern Oregon University has reversed some of the academic cuts included in its Vitality Plan, restoring two majors that had been slated for elimination while leaving the rest of the university's sweeping cost-cutting strategy largely intact.
The revised plan retains the human service and financial mathematics majors, reduces the number of planned employee layoffs and adds performance benchmarks for several academic programs. University leaders say the changes do not alter the plan's overall goal of cutting more than $20 million to address the university's long-running financial crisis and avoid running out of cash next year.
The Board of Trustees approved the Vitality Plan last month to reduce about one-fifth of the university's budget as part of an effort to stabilize its finances and ensure its long-term viability.
According to the university's revision document, the decision to retain the two majors came after strong feedback from faculty and stakeholders, along with additional analysis.
All the faculty and courses in financial math are involved in other programs, so cutting it would not have saved any money.
Math Department Chair Lisa Wileman said she doesn’t understand why the major was ever on the chopping block.
"Why would you even go for the finance math degree when it is the zero cost?" she said. "I'm going to be real honest. I have absolutely no idea who was sitting at the table making those final decisions, but it was negligence."
During a Wednesday news conference, SOU President Rick Bailey acknowledged the mistake.
"We are imperfect in our analysis," he said. "This was just something that we missed."
The financial mathematics program had also been slated for elimination under a different plan in the fall but was later reinstated.
With the restoration of human service and financial mathematics, music industry and production is now the only academic program slated for elimination under the Vitality Plan.
The updated plan also reduces the number of full-time equivalent employees who will be cut from about 66 to about 61.
Bailey said employees will begin receiving layoff notices this week.
The latest version of the plan establishes benchmarks for several academic programs. Human service and media innovation, for example, must meet enrollment and other targets by specified deadlines.
"If those aren't met, then I think we have to have very serious conversations about where we reinvest resources," Bailey said.
These reductions come after two other major cuts at SOU in recent years. The Vitality Plan is estimated to cut almost $12 million, while the rest of the savings come from the fall plan.
The university must cut at least $20 million in less than a year because it’s otherwise forecasted to run out of cash next June. SOU is facing a severe financial crisis after years of declining enrollment and structural budget deficits, among other factors.
Bailey said university leadership is focused on addressing the problem.
"This dragon that has been plaguing our institution for 20 years," Bailey said. "I'm gratified that we are solving this doggone thing and actually putting the institution where it needs to be."
Some university trustees and employees have expressed concerns about how the plan will affect staff, students and the university's long-term future.
Bailey said there’s still plenty of work to do, and the university plans to hire a full-time project manager to oversee implementation.
Bailey said Wednesday that means a project management team. He hopes to announce details at next Wednesday's Board of Trustees meeting.
He also said the plan will likely continue to evolve.
"We may see that, as we move forward over the next year, that there are probably things that we wanted to adjust," he said. "We're going to be very transparent about: here's where we're at, here's where we're at in the process, here's what it's doing, here's how it's changing our fiscal model once and for all, and then here are some lessons learned."
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.
