Marketing and Communications
Press Releases: July 2008
SOU Youth Program Receives Funds (7/23/08)
Southern Oregon University (SOU) is pleased to announce the Cow Creek Umpqua Indian Foundation has awarded the SOU Native American Youth Academy Program, Konaway Nika Tillicum, $10,000.
The Konaway Nika Tillicum Native American Youth Academy is a self-supported year-round academic and cultural support program, culminating in an 8-day residential academy. The program is for academically driven Native American students in grades 7 through 12 who would benefit from immersion in a college setting, exposure to the academic and career possibilities of higher education and the development of Native American cultural and community ties. This year, 43 youth—including six Alaskan Native students from Sitka, Alaska—are registered. Half of the registered youth are returning students.
Konaway students are divided into middle school and high school classes. The classes are modeled after the concept of community-based learning where older students work with younger students. Taught by SOU faculty, alumni and students, the course topics include poetry and writing, theatre, communication, engineering and fine arts. This year, the academy is held from July 26 through August 2.
The weeklong academy will conclude with the Konaway students presenting “Voices for the Seventh Generation” on the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Green Stage from 12:45 to 1:45 pm on August 1. Admission is free.
The show will include performances of Native American and Alaskan Native song and dance, theatric scenes and modern dance, as well as students reading their poetry and exhibiting their artwork.
The Umpqua Indian Foundation gift will support approximately one-third of the Konaway annual budget, which includes the cost of room and board in the SOU residence halls, equipment, faculty and staff, supplies and transportation.
The Umpqua Indian Foundation primary funds projects that provide youth education and strengthen youth and family relationships. The Foundation funds projects on a yearly basis, and only accepts an average of 20 percent of the projects submitted.
“I feel truly fortunate to receive the Umpqua Indian Foundation’s gift this year,” said Chava Florendo, Konaway Nika Tillicum program coordinator. “The Cow Creek Umpqua Foundation has continued to show their dedication to Native American youth and education through their support of the Konaway Nika Tillicum program at Southern Oregon University. More than 71 percent of the Konaway students who have graduated from high school have gone on to college, a true testament to the support received from the Konaway program and the Cow Creek Umpqua Indian Foundation.”
The Konaway Nika Tillicum Youth Academy has also received a $2,500 funding gift from the City of Ashland Economic and Cultural Development Grant and a $1,600 gift from the Ashland Rotary Community Support Fund.
Community Art Installed at New RCC/SOU Higher Education Center (7/18/08)
Southern Oregon University (SOU) and Rogue Community College (RCC) will host a reception to celebrate the installation of art commissioned for the new RCC/SOU Higher Education Center in Medford, Ore.
The reception is scheduled for 3:30 pm on July 24 at the Rogue Gallery and Art Center, 40 S. Bartlett St., Medford. The public is invited.
Richard Swanson is the second of the three artists to install artwork in the new center. He will present a slideshow about his contribution to the center—a series of large tiled, metal shapes adorning the wall of the Center’s front entrance. The design extends into the building’s stairwell.
Swanson spent months researching and developing conceptual designs from regional landmarks and features. His piece—while abstract—relates to the culture, history and landscape of the region. A symbol key located on the front of the building denotes each design’s meaning.
“It was so important to me to balance the literal meaning of each design with the design’s fluidic appearance,” said Swanson. “The piece captures a sense of movement, joyous dancing, and I would like to think that movement could mimic the universe dancing.”
A 10-member committee selected Swanson, along with Tim Prentice, a kinetic sculptor, and Lonnie Feather, a glass artist, from a submission pool of more than 100 entries. The center’s community art was funded as part of the Oregon Art Commission’s mandate that buildings with a construction or remodeling budget of more than $100,000 spend at least one percent of their budget on commissioned public art.
The RCC/SOU Higher Education Center represents a one-of-a-kind partnership in Oregon. The jointly financed, designed and constructed center will house both RCC and SOU classes in one location, making the student transition from community college to university seamless and accommodating working professionals pursuing higher education. Students can co-enroll and choose from both RCC and SOU class schedules. All RCC and SOU faculty and staff are cross-trained to answer questions and serve the center’s variety of students. The 68,700-square-foot, three-story building includes classrooms, a lecture hall, science labs, computer labs, offices, and the Business Center, which integrates RCC and SOU resources into the regional workforce, serving as a one-stop location for workforce training, professional development and employer/employee research. Serving as a hub for RCC and SOU collective services, the center also features a vibrant collection of community art and state-of-the-art energy efficient design.
The center is scheduled to open fall term. A ribbon cutting ceremony and open house are planned on Sept. 3, 2008.
Southern Oregon University Offers Summer Teacher Training (7/9/08)
The Southern Oregon University (SOU) Ashland Center for Theatre Studies is hosting the fifth summer of its Master of Theatre Studies in Production and Design program from July 11 through 26, 2008.
Over the course of three years, working high school and community college theatre teachers can earn their master’s degree by taking an intensive two-week summer program combined with school year applied design and production projects, honing their new-found skills in their own high school or community college. SOU Theatre Department faculty, nationally and internationally known artists and renowned Oregon Shakespeare Festival professionals teach an integrated curriculum that incorporates scenic, costume, lighting and sound design and technology, script analysis and production and stage management.
Reaching attendance capacity of 20 first-year students, the program also has 16 second-year and 16 third-year students, which is the highest number of returning students to date. With participating students coming from across the nation, the program also has students traveling from South Korea and the African nation of Angola to attend.
In addition to receiving a national and international student base, the ACTS Theatre Teacher Training Program received the Creative and Innovative Program Award for Most Outstanding Credit Program 2005 from the North American Association of Summer Sessions.
“Most of the theatre teachers attending our program have very little training in the design and production end of theatre and come to us hungry to fill in those gaps,” said Brooke Friendly, director of ACTS. ”They leave with a tremendous package of skills and knowledge and tell us they see immediate improvements in their own work, their school productions and the work of their students."
There will be a number of ideal photo opportunities to capture the dynamic student participation:
- Tuesday 7/15, 3:30–5:00 pm: scenic models and digital sound design
- Wednesday 7/16, 3:30–5:00 pm: building flats in scene shop and wiring for sound
- Thursday 7/17, 3:30–5:00 pm: building stairs in scene shop, costume drawing, digital sound design
- Monday 7/21, 10:00–11:30 am or 3:30-5:00 pm: props workshop creating flameless candles and makeup (old age and wounds)
- Tuesday, 7/22, 3:30–5:00 pm: lighting design (motivated sources) and costume drawing
- Wednesday 7/23, 3:30–5:00 pm: lighting hang and focus, advanced scenic models, costume construction
- Thursday 7/24, 3:30–5:00 pm: lighting hang and focus, scenic rendering, costume construction
SOU Anthropology Professor Explores the Coquille Basin (7/7/08)
Southern Oregon University (SOU) anthropology professor Mark Tveskov will lead a four-person team in an excavation of an archaeological site on the Oregon coast in the Coquille Indian Tribe’s (CIT) traditional land. The investigation is an SOU Laboratory of Anthropology (SOULA) project and will take five days from July 7 to July 11, 2008. Tveskov’s team includes one current SOU anthropology student and two SOU anthropology graduates.
During the upcoming trip, the team will excavate and analyze artifacts that could be up to 5,000 years old, as well as the shells and bones of animals that were left over from meals eaten by the site's inhabitants.
This expedition is part of a long-term collaborative research project with the CIT that has also involved the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service and Oregon State Parks to conduct archaeological survey and excavation, historical and ethnohistorical research and oral tradition research into the prehistory and history of the Coquille River in Coos County, Oregon.
While mapping cultural sites of the CIT traditional land, SOULA has assisted in documenting some 10,000 years of human history and ecology on the Oregon coast. Among other things, this research demonstrates how dynamic the natural environment of the region is and how native people successfully developed a sustainable way of life that lasted thousands of years despite climate change and periodic earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural disasters.
“The longstanding Coquille River project is not only essential to assessing the impact of development, erosion and looting on archaeological sites within Coquille Tribal territory, but provides crucial data for understanding factors relating to how human societies react to climate change over long periods of time,” said Tveskov. “The project also provides anthropology, Native American studies and environmental studies students the opportunity to participate in field research.”
Southern Oregon University Professor Wins Educational Funding (7/7/08)
Southern Oregon University (SOU) School of Education Professor Gregg Gassman has written a successful proposal to fund an Oregon University/School Partnership Program with Klamath Falls City School District (KFCSD). The Western Oregon University Teaching Research Institute has awarded $68,370 for the 2008–09 fiscal year to Gassman’s project, “Improving Mathematics Instruction and Learning through Curriculum-Based Measures: A Trainer of Trainers Model.”
Following the “Response to Intervention Model,” Gassman will work with SOU mathematics professor Irv Lubliner and two Southern Oregon Education Service District psychologists, Kim Hosford and Moria McKenna to train six instructional coaches in the KFCSD. The instructional coaches will train KFCSD teachers on improved methods of mathematics instruction in kindergarten through eighth-grade classrooms.
The program develops district-wide academic support of all students while creating a system of interventions for at-risk students in the Klamath Falls City School District, which comprises six elementary and middle schools. Instructional coaches will work with district teachers to establish a system of assessing the students’ ability to satisfy mathematics academic goals.
The instructional coaches will be trained on specific steps for charting students’ academic performance in mathematics. The project emphasizes practice and policy development, as well as constructing a foundation for program sustainability.
“Through outreach to a community education partner, we have a method of providing financial and academic support to public schools,” said Gassman, who will serve as the program’s director. “Instead of teachers having to come to campus, we are taking the training to Klamath Falls.”
