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Kitzhaber Where he'll be Public appearances by Gov. John Kitzhaber: 7 to 8 p.m. today, public forum, Rogue River Room in Stevenson Union, Southern Oregon University, Ashland. 11 to 11:30 a.m. Thursday, brief speech, gymnasium at Ashland High School. Kitzhaber focuses on shaping future By PETER WONG Gov. John Kitzhaber says his three-day visit to Southern Oregon will focus on population growth and how the state can help the region shape its future. "I think the big issues are growth management and a change in governance that we are pushing," he said Tuesday after a meeting of the Oregon Progress Board in Medford. "We want to know how we can make the state more of a partner to help the region achieve its own vision." Kitzhaber and other board members heard from local representatives of the five state agencies that make up the state's community solutions team. Kitzhaber initiated the teams statewide to bring together the state agencies most involved in dealing with community growth problems. Kitzhaber recently began regional partnerships intended to bring together state and community agencies, though some local officials raised questions about how well the system will work and the omission of natural resources agencies. In addition to tours of Sabroso Co. and Bear Creek Corp. today, Kitzhaber will take a look at the south Medford interchange on Interstate 5 and meet with the Transportation Advocacy Committee, which pushes for improvements in Jackson and Josephine counties. Kitzhaber also will appear at a public forum at 7 tonight at Southern Oregon University. Kitzhaber's 1999-2001 budget, now before the Legislature, proposes about $40 million for the state university system to move toward a market model in which tuition and other dollars follow students, not the institutions. The budget also proposes to continue a 2-year-old freeze on undergraduate tuition, which at SOU rose from $608 to $1,015 per term from 1990-91 to 1996-97. Senate President Brady Adams, R-Grants Pass, has suggested $80 million toward the model, which would require $120 million to put it into effect. Adams' proposal also would continue the freeze. "If we can put this budget together and put more money into it without doing violence to other programs, I'll be supportive of that," Kitzhaber said. "I am not hostile to higher education. "Our commitment to the university presidents and the board this time was to put in enough money to fund the transition, continue the tuition freeze, and other programs such as graduate engineering. My commitment is to get all of it in the next two-year budget period -- but the question is where it comes from." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA