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Three testify about SOU's quality, need By PETER WONG SALEM -- Her daughter started college in Salem and Portland, but Casey Mitchell of Ashland said that coming to Southern Oregon University proved to be the right move for Amanda. "I am here to tell you how important Southern Oregon University has been to the academic and personal growth of my daughter," Mitchell said Monday to the legislative subcommittee that is considering the university system budget. "It was at Southern where she has found the academic rigor, the intense personal support and the educational challenge, all within a nurturing environment, that has assisted her in following a professional path for the rest of her life." Amanda Mitchell, a pre-medical student, plans to graduate in 2000. Her mother was part of a Southern Oregon trio that testified to the Legislature's joint budget subcommittee on education Monday. The panel is considering the system's request for more money to continue a freeze on undergraduate tuition and begin per-student budgeting for the seven campuses. "I chose Southern because it was close to home, affordable, and its political science department offered small classes with easy access to professors," said Brad Hicks, a 1987 graduate who worked a couple of sessions as a legislative aide. A member of the SOU alumni board and advisory board, Hicks said SOU is important to the continued evolution of the region's economy and job growth, which led Oregon's four metropolitan areas in 1998. "The extent to which Southern is able to make the necessary investments to meet the region's growing demands depends on your willingness to fund the new budget model at the highest level possible," Hicks said. "Higher education has taken severe cuts to its budget in the past 10 years and must now have significant recapitalization." Hicks is marketing director for the Chamber of Medford/Jackson County. He said he did not speak for the chamber, which has taken no formal position on the budget. SOU student body president Sophia McDonald has made three previous trips to the Capitol this session. She said she wants to remind lawmakers what it is they are paying for. "I look at higher education in Oregon not as spending but as an investment in our children, our neighbors, ourselves -- and in the future of our state," she said. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA