“We want to treat every student here as if they are precious, because they are,” President Roy Saigo said in his speech for State of the University that included his plans to develop and reconnect the community of Southern Oregon University.
Saigo’s speech made an impression on the students and faculty who attended. “This was my first time meeting the president and he’s going to lead our school to greatness,” Audrey Dunham said.
Although the majority of the audience was faculty and staff, students who attended thought that the president really wants to create an environment that everyone will enjoy. “He wants a community full of innovation,leadership,to build quality and get the positive back instead of the rumors of SOU not being a successful university.” Ryan Loughrey said. “It was really nice to hear that Roy Saigo is just the a man of the people and really humble. He’s really working hard to make SOU the best school that we can be,”
While students were intrigued by the president’s words, some faculty also thought his speech was pleasing. “I think the thing we saw in the speech by the president tonight is great evidence of how unflappable he is and how reassuring he is for the university community and how capable he is at helping to bring together the diverse communities that can help support the success of the university moving forward,” Professor Erik Palmer said.
Saigo would like to have a stream of students come to SOU and continue the rising number of enrollments since the freshman class this year has been the largest in ten years. With this in mind, Saigo said he wants staff and faculty to connect with community colleges and local high
schools to convince them to be apart of the SOU community. He already has twenty schools interested in participating in the program.
Emerging Media Digital Arts Professor Eric Palmer says“I’m personally excited about the possibility of having greater faculty and staff involvement in reaching out to perspective students. I do worry a little bit that it’s going to take a lot of work to make that happen. It’s going to take a lot of support from staff and others from the university community to make it happen in a way that
it’s going to make it be successful but I look forward to the possibilities and bring that all
together and help drive good enrollment numbers for SOU.”
