SOU President Rick Bailey’s March 2025 Update

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.