Document text
SOU decides on new president Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Elisabeth Zinser, left, will be Southern Oregon University�s next president, the state Board of Higher Education announced Friday. She met with SOU�s interim president, Sara Hopkins-Powell, at the administration office Friday afternoon. Hopkins-Powell will return to her post as provost and vice president of academic affairs when Zinser takes over in July or August. By SARA MURPHY ASHLAND � Elisabeth Zinser will be the next president of Southern Oregon University, the state Board of Higher Education agreed Friday. During a special meeting at SOU, the board unanimously appointed Zinser to replace former president Stephen Reno, who left last summer to be chancellor of the University System of New Hampshire. Zinser will be paid $117,000 with an additional $10,000 for expenses. She will live in the SOU president�s house above campus. "This is indeed a dream come true for me and for Don," said Zinser, who is married to former Idaho legislator Don Mackin. "We pledge to you to do our very best and to follow in the footsteps of the Renos, the Coxes and those who came before." Oregon University System Chancellor Joseph Cox served as SOU�s president from 1987 to 1994. "And it was, in fact, the best part of our lives," he told the crowd of more than 100 who attended the announcement of Zinser�s appointment. Zinser, 60, is chancellor of the University of Kentucky-Lexington campus. She will begin work at SOU in July or August after wrapping up duties in Kentucky, where UK President Charles Wethington is set to retire this summer. As president, Wethington oversees the university, a community college and a medical center; Zinser is chancellor of the 21,000-student university. In Oregon, presidents direct each of the seven public universities, while Chancellor Cox is chief executive officer of the entire system. Zinser said Friday she was "proud" and "ecstatic" to be selected as SOU�s next president. "I�m coming to Southern Oregon University because it has the kind of values I embrace most fully," she said, citing the school�s commitment to teaching and learning, regional development and its residential campus. She said she wants to help "higher education stimulate the kind of development that the Rogue Valley is looking forward to." Zinser said partnerships � among universities and with the business community � will help support economic development. She cites the high-tech engineering field and Oregon Health Sciences University�s proposal to develop the state as a premier national health research center as areas of interest. Interim President Sara Hopkins-Powell, the first woman to serve as president of SOU, will return to her post as provost and vice president for academic affairs once Zinser arrives on campus. Zinser said she and Hopkins-Powell will make a "first-class team," along with the other SOU administrators. "I will consider it a great privilege to work with her," Zinser said. Zinser, who holds master�s degrees in nursing and management and a doctorate in philosophy, previously served as president of the University of Idaho and, briefly, at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. She resigned after four days at Gallaudet, the nation�s only university for the deaf, where students and faculty erupted in protest upon news of her appointment and demanded a deaf president. Zinser said she has remained in close contact with the deaf community at Gallaudet and is listed in the Guinness World Records for the shortest stint as a university president, an oddball honor that was once a question on the "Jeopardy" trivia show. 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 � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.