THE SOU PLAN
This section lists our university’s Vision, Mission and Values, and our Strategic Directions and Goals.
Vision
Southern Oregon University will become an inclusive, sustainable university for the future that guides all learners to develop the knowledge, capacities, and audacity to innovate boldly and create lives of purpose.
Mission
Southern Oregon University is a regionally-engaged learning community committed to being the educational provider of choice for learners throughout their lives.
- We inspire curiosity and creativity, compel critical thinking, foster discovery, and cultivate bold ideas and actions.
- We achieve student success, professional preparation, and civic engagement through service excellence, evolving technologies, and innovative curriculum.
- We foster access, equity, inclusion and diversity in thought and practice.
- We prepare our learners to be responsible, engaged citizens in our democracy.
- We promote economic vitality, sustainability, cultural enrichment, and social well-being in our region, the state, the nation, and the world.
SOU Values
- The well-being and success of all learners
- Critical thinking, discovery, and engaged learning
- Equity, diversity, and inclusion
- Creativity and collaboration
- Excellence, continuous improvement, and accountability
- A healthy, safe, and civil campus
- Economic vitality and environmental sustainability
- Improving our community, region, and world
Strategic Directions & Goals
Strategic Direction I: SOU will transform its pedagogy and curriculum (how and what it teaches) to enhance the success of its learners and graduates.
- Goal One: SOU will develop curriculum and provide learning experiences that prepare all learners for life and work in an evolving future; connect directly with the challenges of our community, region, and world; and build self-confidence and the capacity to think critically, innovate boldly, and create lives of purpose.
- Goal Two: SOU will align faculty hiring, promotion and tenure policies, and allocation of other academic resources with the university’s mission, vision and strategic plan.
- Goal Three: SOU will develop and utilize resources to ensure affordability of and access to student learning opportunities.
- Goal Four: SOU will engage in ongoing assessment of academic and academic support programs in order to further a process of continuous improvement.
Strategic Direction II: SOU will become an employer of choice and provide excellent service to all of its constituents.
- Goal One: SOU will develop effective orientation, training and professional development programs as well as a performance management process that rewards employees for continuous improvement.
- Goal Two: SOU will improve its customer experience by streamlining business processes.
- Goal Three: SOU will align its internal and external communications to foster greater collaboration and enhance its credibility.
- Goal Four: SOU will design and implement a program that will develop a culture of service excellence in all employees.
Strategic Direction III: SOU will actively model an environmentally sustainable campus and engage in collaborative research to promote an ecologically-resilient bioregion.
- Goal One: SOU will be a model sustainable institution of higher education, integrating sustainable planning, practices, policies, and education throughout the university.
- Goal Two: SOU will strengthen its organizational and financial infrastructure to support the advancement, promotion and reach of environmental sustainability at SOU.
- Goal Three: SOU will integrate sustainability, the environment, and conservation into its curriculum, scholarship, and creative activity.
Strategic Direction IV: SOU will create a diverse, equitable, inclusive community where learners flourish.
- Goal One: SOU will replace structural and systemic barriers with equitable processes and practices that promote a sense of belonging and ensure the success of a diverse “new majority.”
- Goal Two: SOU will establish supportive pathways that will increase the access, retention, and success of learners (students, faculty, and staff) from underrepresented backgrounds.
- Goal Three: SOU will prepare all learners regardless of background, identity and position, to work, live, and communicate effectively across differences in order to thrive in an increasingly diverse world.
Strategic Direction V: SOU will maintain financial stability and invest for institutional vitality.
- Goal One: SOU will develop, implement and monitor a comprehensive strategic enrollment management plan.
- Goal Two: SOU will develop key performance indicators to incentivize, monitor, and reward improvements, innovations or efficiencies.
- Goal Three: SOU will enhance opportunities to leverage its existing assets to increase revenue.
- Goal Four: SOU will invest in opportunities that generate additional gifts, grants, and sponsorships from external sources.
Strategic Direction VI: SOU will develop physical and virtual environments in which all learners can thrive.
- Goal One: SOU will utilize universal design principles to transform learning spaces to inspire creativity, collaboration and intellectual growth in all of the learning communities we serve.
- Goal Two: SOU will provide opportunities for all learners to be effective users of immersive, accessible and virtual technologies and spaces.
Strategic Direction VII: SOU will be a catalyst for economic vitality, civic engagement and cultural enrichment through ongoing collaboration with local, state, tribal, national, and global partners.
- Goal One: SOU will be a resource and collaborative partner for the economic, cultural, artistic and social betterment of the region.
- Goal Two: SOU will collaborate with a wide range of partners to provide civic engagement, service learning, and community-based learning experiences for all its learners.
Glossary of Terms
Civic Engagement: Individual and collective actions designed to identify and address issues of public interest.
Critical Thinking: The process of actively and objectively conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information to reach an answer or conclusion. Critical thinkers think through and question ideas before adoption.
Ecologically-resilient Bioregion: An ecologically and/or geographically distinct area with sustained integrity and function regardless of disturbance or change.
Educational Provider of Choice: A leading and preferred educational option for learners, whether they are enrolling for the first time, continuing their education, developing new skills, or changing careers.
Equity: Equity refers to the qualities of justness, fairness, impartiality, and even-handedness for all people. Equity is often confused with equality, which refers to equal sharing and exact division.
Employer of Choice: The preferred employment option for job seekers and employees of all types.
Learners: All persons seeking increased knowledge or skill including degree seekers, faculty, staff, and lifelong learners.
Pedagogy:: The study, of the theory, and practice of teaching. Pedagogy informs the interactions of teachers and learners aimed at achieving learning objectives.
Regionally-engaged: Playing an effective and leading role in regional advancement.
Service Excellence: Meeting and exceeding expectations of our internal and external constituents.
Sustainability: Sustainability presumes that resources are finite, and should be used wisely with a view to long-term priorities and consequences of the ways in which resources are expended.
Contact the Office of the President
SOU Office of the President
1250 Siskiyou Blvd.
Ashland, OR 97520
Office: 541.552.6111
Fax: 541.552.6337
presidentsoffice@sou.edu
