Message from the President Archives

SOU Listen Raider Up with President Rick Podcast

Listen: Raider Up with President Rick, Episode 16

June 6, 2025 – Southern Oregon University President Rick Bailey touches on new topics each month in the “Raider Up” podcast, moderated by Marketing and Communications student employee Susie Dale, a UK exchange student studying English at SOU. This month’s topics are a look back from the end of the academic year at what has been learned and accomplished, and a look ahead to what may be in store for students in the fall – from progress on sustainability and older student housing, to more fantastic academics and student support.

SOU President Rick Baileys June 2025 Update Learn More

Watch: SOU President Rick Bailey’s June 2025 Update

June 3, 2025 – We’re in the run-up to our “favorite day of the year,” and President Rick Bailey has a new video message – from Raider Stadium, the venue for SOU’s June 14 Commencement – to help keep our campus and community informed. has two topics for this month’s video message to campus and the community. As for that favorite day, President Bailey says “we all witness the transformative power of education” during our annual graduation ceremonies. He also congratulates the SOU women’s softball team for winning its fourth NAIA national championship in six years – and doing to in historic fashion, by losing the first game of the tournament and then rallying to take seven in a row to win the title. “You have made us all incredibly proud,” he says. The president also lays out his plans for the summer, including choosing a partner to build and operate the “older adult living project” on the former Cascade Complex site, working on the university’s “SOU Thrive” strategic plan and supporting efforts to ensure SOU’s long term fiscal sustainability. He points out that Oregon has slipped to 46th nationally in state support for public universities, and says “we’ve got to do everything we can to make sure our state understands” the universal benefits of higher ed.

Listen: Raider Up with President Rick, Episode 15

May 16, 2025 – Southern Oregon University President Rick Bailey touches on new topics each month in the “Raider Up” podcast, moderated by Marketing and Communications student employee Susie Dale, a UK exchange student studying English at SOU. This month’s discussion centers on Artificial Intelligence – which President Bailey says should be leveraged to open more opportunities for students to learn and achieve. “Let’s embrace it,” he says. “Let’s find ways to use it ethically and responsibly.”

SOU President Rick Bailey’s May 2025 Update Learn More

Watch: SOU President Rick Bailey’s May 2025 Update

May 8, 2025 – President Bailey discusses SOU’s new strategic planning process – SOU Thrive – in this month’s video message to campus and the community. He describes a strategic plan as “really just a fancy way of saying this is the vision of how we are going to get from where we are now as a university to where we want the university to be a few years from now.” The process starts with understanding the context and environment surrounding the university, determining what the future should look like, and then answering the question, “how do we get from Point A to Point B?” He said the SOU Thrive plan needs to be approachable and useable, rather than “some convoluted plan that sits on a shelf and nobody uses.” The planning process is underway, with a campus survey, meetings with stakeholder groups, an open house and more. He hopes that the end product will help SOU move from what he calls “a defensive posture” to being able to “build the university that everyone deserves.”

Listen: Raider Up with President Rick, Episode 14

April 22, 2025 – Southern Oregon University President Rick Bailey touches on new topics each month in the “Raider Up” podcast, moderated by Marketing and Communications student employee Susie Dale, a UK exchange student studying English at SOU. This month’s topics include preparations for the “SOU Thrive” strategic plan – the guiding document that President Bailey says will “create a pathway between where we are now and where we want to be as an institution.” There are also updates on senior living, the University Business District, solar power and more.

Watch: SOU President Rick Bailey’s April 2025 Update

April 14, 2025 – President Bailey discusses SOU’s new strategic planning process – SOU Thrive – in this month’s video message to campus and the community. He describes a strategic plan as “really just a fancy way of saying this is the vision of how we are going to get from where we are now as a university to where we want the university to be a few years from now.” The process starts with understanding the context and environment surrounding the university, determining what the future should look like, and then answering the question, “how do we get from Point A to Point B?” He said the SOU Thrive plan needs to be approachable and useable, rather than “some convoluted plan that sits on a shelf and nobody uses.” The planning process is underway, with a campus survey, meetings with stakeholder groups, an open house and more. He hopes that the end product will help SOU move from what he calls “a defensive posture” to being able to “build the university that everyone deserves.”

Watch: SOU President Rick Bailey’s March 2025 Update

March 12, 2025 – This month’s video message from President Rick Bailey is all about resources – funding opportunities for SOU students, and for the university. He addresses potential students for the 2025-26 academic year, saying “there is money right now, potentially available to you – and money you don’t need to pay back.’ Those resources are offered through various scholarships and grants, to those who complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Current or potential students can set up appointments with an SOU financial aid advisor by emailing finaid@sou.edu . President Bailey also updated the revenue-related elements of the SOU Forward plan that was adopted two years ago. Efforts to reimagine grants and sponsored gifts by incentivizing faculty and staff members to pursue outside funding for research, equipment and other purposes has led to a big increase in both applications and in awards. A greater emphasis on philanthropy has brought unprecedented fund-raising success – 10 years ago, the SOU Foundation generated an annual average of about $2.5 million in gifts; the average for each of the past three years has been about $10 million. The president also touched on revenue-generating projects: private developers have been invited to submit proposals for the senior living center that will replace the demolished Cascade Complex; and the rapid expansion of solar projects now enable the university to generate about 16% of its daytime electrical needs, compared to about 3% when President Bailey began at SOU three years ago.

Watch: SOU President Rick Bailey’s February 2025 Update

February 21, 2025 – President Rick Bailey has a single topic for his February video message, and it gets straight to the heart of SOU: love. “We are built on a principle here at Southern Oregon University that everyone is deserving and worthy of love and respect and kindness and support,” President Bailey says. The university has love for all, regardless of where they are from, their last names, how they identify themselves, their abilities, their military status, their hometowns or how they choose to vote. “You still have a home here at SOU,” the president says. Current events have highlighted the divisions throughout society, but SOU provides an environment where people of all stripes can live and learn together with respect – and love. “This is not a political stance, and it certainly is not a political act of defiance,” President Bailey says. “I think we can do two things at the same time. We can be honorable, and we can make sure we’re following all of the federal and state laws. And at same time, we can hold true to the principle that everyone is deserving of love.”

Raider Up With SOU President Rick Bailey Fall 2023 Cover

Listen: Raider Up with President Rick, Episode 13

February 18, 2025 – Southern Oregon University President Rick Bailey touches on new topics each month in this podcast moderated by Marketing and Communications student employee Susie Dale, a UK exchange student studying English at SOU. This months topics include SOU’s proposed public-private developments to construct an anchor building for the new University District, and to create a senior living facility at the site of the Cascade Complex – which is currently being demolished. Rick and Susie also discuss the recent “snowmageddon” event in Ashland, and more.

SOU President Rick Bailey January 2025 Video Message Watch

Watch: SOU President Rick Bailey’s January 2025 Update

January 14, 2025 – Why is President Rick Bailey sitting in an electric Volkswagen van on a video set at SOU’s Digital Media Center? It’s what his January video message is all about: partnerships. In this case, SOU’s partnership with Lithia Motors and its GreenCars division – the VW ID. Buzz electric bus is on loan to the university, part of an historic gift that created the Lithia & Driveway Scholarship program, the SOU Institute for Applied Sustainability and much more. President Bailey says that partnership has had “direct impact in the community and university and statewide. He also shares during this month’s video that he was a first-generation college student, and receiving college informational packets while he was in high schoo helped reinforced the idea that he was college material. Fast-forward to present day and SOU has forged data-sharing partnerships with 10 school districts around the state and region, giving SOU the opportunity to share information and encourage students to pursue their college aspirations. “That’s an example of a partnership where the more we get students into colleges in the state, the more everyone wins,” he says.