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SOU scores $1.06 million from feds By Sara Murphy ASHLAND � Southern Oregon University will receive $761,000 as part of a House Appropriations bill awaiting President Clinton�s signature. The federal funding, requested by Republican Rep. Greg Walden, was approved Friday in the House of Representatives and the Senate as part of a Labor, Health and Human Services and Education bill. President Clinton is expected to sign the bill into law sometime this week. The bill allocates $461,000 to pay for equipment and staff that will allow the SOU Library to begin placing its government documents collection on the Internet. A second allocation of $300,000 will help the university tackle student drug and alcohol use. "These are two good programs at Southern and I�m just glad they were able to make it through the process," Walden said in a phone interview from Hood River Monday. "You never know at the end of a session." Walden said it�s "not infrequent" for Congress to allocate this type of funding to state universities, but SOU�s awards aren�t without a certain distinction. "To get two allocations of this nature at one university, I think, is a real good effort, a good outcome," the congressman said. "Often you�re only able to get maybe one." Other Oregon universities are also set to receive funding from the bill, Walden said, including one other within the Second Congressional District he represents: Central Oregon Community College in Bend. SOU officials said they were pleased to learn Monday their projects had received the House and Senate�s approval. "We�re excited and pleased that Congressman Walden was able to carry these initiatives forward," SOU President Sara Hopkins-Powell said. "It was very exciting for us that they (Congress) were interested in helping with our library." The SOU Library, which serves as a federal Government Document Depository, plans to begin "digitizing" its documents collection to allow for more widespread public access on the Internet. The collection contains government documents and reports pertaining to Southern Oregon, such as the Oregon Regional Watershed Assessments, that can be hard to find � if patrons even know they exist, said Library Director Sue Burkholder. "If you know its name, you might find out that it�s here," Burkholder said. "But you have to come over to the library to find it. If you can look at it on the Web, you can put forward your research a great deal." A second federal allocation will help SOU establish a peer-education program to tackle student drug and alcohol-related problems. The university plans to train faculty and students to develop a program that will encourage students at the junior-high through college level to think about health and wellness when making choices about alcohol or other drug use. Reach Ashland bureau reporter Sara Murphy at 482-4655, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.