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At SOU, local board is paying off A year in, SOU board says local control is a good thing for the school Comment By Joe Zavala for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Joe Zavala for the Mail Tribune Posted Aug. 15, 2016 at 12:01 AM By Joe Zavala for the Mail Tribune Posted Aug. 15, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Social News Southern Oregon University Board President Bill Thorndike recently recounted a conversation he had with fellow SOU board member Teresa Sayre, who is superintendent of the Phoenix-Talent School District. “(Sayre) basically said, ‘If you could give me five elementary school teachers who were bilingual certified, I’d hire them today.’” Thorndike said. “Now, we have opportunities, if we’re listening.” The “we” in Thorndike’s statement is the SOU board, a 15-member independent body that “has broad authority to supervise and manage the affairs of the university and may exercise and carry out all of the powers, rights and privileges that are expressly conferred upon the university, or that are implied by law, or are incidental to such powers, rights and duties.” That long-winded explainer, a small snippet from Section 2 of Senate Bill 270, sums up the new world order that shook up Oregon’s seven public universities beginning July 1, 2015, when each university began reporting to its own governing board rather than the now-disbanded Board of Higher Education. Before the law was enacted, nobody knew exactly how each university, particularly the smaller schools such as SOU, would fare. Without enough donations to cover expenses, SOU — like Oregon Institute of Technology, Western Oregon University and Eastern Oregon University — relies heavily on state funding, which makes lobbying efforts crucial to its survival. Once the umbilical cord to a state agency charged with spreading the wealth was cut, would SOU be able to fend for itself? A final verdict is probably years away, but 13 months after SOU’s board took the reins, it’s being viewed on campus as a home run for local interests. “I think it’s been a great success,” said business professor Dennis Slattery, a faculty representative on the board. “The first thing I’d want people to know is that my fellow trustees have put in a great deal of effort to do what the state board would never have done for us, and that’s to understand the institution. We spent a year in meetings understanding different departments, efforts for outreach, how administration works, how budgeting works. That amount of intense focus on SOU specifically is going to make a huge difference.” Board Vice Chair April Sevcik said the move to local boards should be a net win for SOU because it shifts the power to a group of people who have a vested interest in the university. “I have been involved with the university most of the time since I went to school there in the ’60s, and I have seen every president since Jim Sours,” Sevcik said. “And we never had an opportunity before to have very much input at all. In fact, there were several cases in the past where local people were asked to submit input, and I knew what we felt and nobody listened. And yet, having later met those presidents, I could understand part of what the appeal was. “I think we have a chance to look at the university and say, ‘What is it we need in this community?’ I am very, very concerned about our local people and I want to be sure the university is serving the needs of the local people first.” SOU's board didn’t have long to adjust to its new role before it was faced with its first major decision: finding somebody to replace outgoing president Roy Saigo, who announced his intention to retire last October. University presidents in Oregon previously were appointed by the chancellor, but last January SOU kicked off its own search. In the end, SOU hired Linda Schott, president of University of Maine at Presque Isle, who signed a three-year contract and got to work at SOU Aug. 1. The challenge going forward, Thorndike said, is turning the board's local influence into policies and programs that can make SOU the school regional students choose to gain the skills they need for jobs that are already here. And Thorndike, the board chair, says opportunities are everywhere. Last October, he points out, Rogue Community College was awarded a $14.6 million federal grant for 1,100 low-income students in job training and education programs for health careers. The Southern Oregon Health Occupations Poverty Elimination Project will provide training and classes in 16 high-demand health care fields, such as EMT training, medical assistant and CNA training. “So we can all applaud and say that’s great for Rogue Community College,” Thorndike said. “But what goes through (my) mind is, there’s going to be a certain number of those students who are going to say, ‘You know, I’m smart enough and I have the skills, and now that I understand what it means to become certified to do a CNA job, an entry-level job in our health care business, I want more.’ I ask myself, what is Southern Oregon University doing?” Now, Thorndike says, perhaps SOU can explore a possible partnership program with Oregon Institute of Technology that would draw some of those potential students. Getting something like that off the ground would take a great deal of planning and dedication to the project. But Thorndike is optimistic, and the hope on campus is that now that the decision-makers understand the history and mission of SOU, its future will be sculpted accordingly. “The reality was, in the past, we were just a small fish kind of swimming out on the side of the pond,” Thorndike said, “and Oregon State and Portland State and the University of Oregon, they were chomping up most of the food in the pond. Now we have the opportunity to maybe change that. So that’s my hope and my dream. Joe Zavala is a reporter for the Ashland Daily Tidings. Reach him at 541-821-0829 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @Joe_Zavala99. By Joe Zavala for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Joe Zavala for the Mail Tribune Posted Aug. 15, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. 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