It’s official, Southern Oregon University will go forward with the retrenchment process.
It’s all part of a the university’sshortfall of between 3.3 and 5 million dollars.
And now a decision must be made to cut programs and or move staff.
“We are going to come out of this out with a stronger focus as well as a stronger financial situation,” said SOU President Mary Cullinan.
Cullinan admits it wasn’t an easy decision, but with a combination of lower enrollment, students dropping out, and decreased funds from the state, something needed to be done. Even if it means losing important staff members.
“Losing people is horrible, we have tremendous staff members here…we are a close knit community, so it’s horrible.”
Tommy Letchworth is the student body president, and says state legislators need to step up.
“At one point our society valued public education to the point it should be insolated and protected from the volatility by market forces.A sentiment that doesn’t seem to be held our current legislators.”
This isn’t the first time the university has been through this process. In 2006 a retrenchment, eliminated 24 programs and terminated 22 faculty members. But Cullinan says since they did it once, they can do it again.
The university has compiled a list of frequently asked questions and a place for the community to send their thoughts about possible cuts.
For more on that you can visit:http://stateoftheuniversity.sou.edu/
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