At Thursday's final town hall, attendees pushed back on some of the cuts that are proposed in the university鈥檚 plan.
The theater department has a proposed reduction of 6.25 full-time employees through employees retiring, eliminating vacant positions and firing at least two staff.
At the town hall, theater administrative program assistant Helen Eckard said students have cried in her office about the cuts, and the department has struggled.
"With all the chaos in our program, there鈥檚 not one day where I have wanted to come to work since this all came down," Eckard said emotionally. "The communication within our collaborative, supposedly collaborative, art has been appallingly bad. And I think every day about just giving my notice and leaving now. Because, what鈥檚 it worth, it鈥檚 not worth it."
The , which was released last week, proposes cutting the equivalent of nearly 82 full-time positions, or about 13% of SOU鈥檚 workforce. About 59 of those cuts will be achieved through leaving current vacancies unfilled, retirements, voluntary departures and non-renewable contracts. The equivalent of 23 faculty and staff will be fired, although the specifics have not been released.
鈥淭he urgency with which we crafted this plan was driven by the diverging curves between revenues and costs and a desire to take the time needed to act with compassion for those whose positions are impacted by the recommendation,鈥� the plan reads.
One of the programs proposed to be cut is the Master鈥檚 in Environmental Education. Ryan King, an alumnus of the program, said at the town hall that it fills a unique need in Southern Oregon, and he encouraged the university to reimagine it rather than discontinue the program.
"I think the void created by its continuation will be big, but I think the reimagination created could be enormous," he said.
The Oregon Center for the Arts at SOU also faces a cut of 6.25 employees. The Education, Leadership, Health, and Humanities division could lose 6.37 full-time employees, while Enrollment Management and Student Support could lose 6.45. The line item with the largest potential cut is Finance and Administration, with a proposed loss of 23.15 full-time employees in departments such as facilities, human resources and information technology.
SOU President Rick Bailey, who began his role in Jan. 2022, has stressed that cost management is only one of four 鈥減lanks鈥� in the university鈥檚 plan to improve its financial position. The other three include an emphasis on grants, philanthropy and diversifying revenue.
Proposed options for revenue diversification include producing all of the university鈥檚 daytime electricity using solar power on campus and replacing the Cascade Housing Complex with a senior living community.
Other aspects of the plan include converting the cheer/dance and cycling teams from varsity back to club sports, shrinking the number of academic divisions from seven down to four and the Vice President of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs Neil Woolf departing.
At the meeting Bailey stressed the longevity of the university, saying, "We are not going to allow this institution to be one that down the road they talk about as having 150 great years, and then that was it. We're not gonna let that happen. So it means we have to make these impossible decisions."
The realignment plan will be presented to the university鈥檚 Board of Trustees on March 17, and the Board will take action on it on April 21.
