December 13, 2022 – SOU President Rick Bailey wishes happy holidays for all, regardless of your traditions or how you celebrate the winter season. The pause between fall and winter terms is a time for celebration and reflection – and a reminder that for everyone from Reading to Roseburg, SOU is your hometown public university.
December 6, 2022 – SOU President Rick Bailey talks with students and employees about the university’s pending fiscal and programmatic realignment in his December video message to campus. President Bailey says he is “pleading with” all members of the campus community to play a role in what he acknowledges will be a painful process of determining the things SOU should stop doing. He promises an open, inclusive and compassionate process that ultimately will strengthen the university’s fiscal foundation and will make SOU a model for universities nationwide to reposition for the future.
September 27, 2022 – SOU President Rick Bailey welcomes students and employees to fall term 2022, in his September video message to campus. President Bailey also lays out the plan to escape a periodic cycle of financial crises that are common at public higher education institutions across the country by reducing reliance on state funding and tuition revenue, and creating new income streams for the university by installing four planks: sustainable energy production, a senior living community, a campus business district and replacement of SOU’s core information system.
June 3, 2022 – Watch SOU President Rick Bailey’s June 2022 campus video message. Topics for the final spring term message from President Bailey include SOU’s Gold rating for Sustainability in Higher Education; long-term fiscal goals and how we will address them; a congratulations to the Southern Oregon University women’s Rugby team for a successful trip to the national championship tournament; the celebration of LGBTQ pride month in June; and SOU’s flag-raising ceremony. President Bailey also welcomes the entire SOU community to join this year’s commencement ceremony.
May 13, 2022 – The topics for president Bailey’s May video message to campus and the region: JEDI (justice, equity, diversity and inclusion); Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month; the in person commencement ceremony on June 11 that will pay tribute to classes of 2022, 2021 and 2020; the Juneteenth flag raising ceremony on June 18; collaboration with Ashland and Medford schools, and others throughout the region; and the value of communication – particularly the ideas and opinions of those within the SOU community.
April 15, 2022 – President Bailey shares his thoughts this month on our shared appreciation for SOU’s faculty, sexual assault awareness and prevention, the correlation between student involvement and retention, and our unity in drawing new students to campus.
March 16, 2022 – The March 2022 video message from SOU President Rick Bailey touches on honoring women trail-blazers and the women in our lives; SOU’s upcoming (in-person) commencement ceremony on June 11 for graduates in the classes of 2020, 2021 and 2022; thoughts on the war in Ukraine and other geopolitical crises around the world, what excites hi the most about SOU; and the value of kindness. Be inspired – and be kind!
February 18, 2022 – President Rick Bailey shares in his February 2022 video “five quick things” from his first month and a half on campus and in southern Oregon – building relationships, using science to address the pandemic, the university as a “marketplace of ideas,” partnerships and collaboration, and observances on Black History Month.
January 18, 2022 – President Bailey says in his introductory video in January 2022 that his first few months as SOU president will involve “strategic listening,” learning from students, cultivating partnerships that will result in opportunities for faculty and staff members, and identifying resources for the university. He will seek to engage with stakeholders and leverage the common ground he finds.