Office of the President

From the President – April 1, 2025

Welcoming Spring

Dear EOU Community,

We’ve entered Spring term! In my opinion, it’s the most beautiful time of the year, but we often enter this term carrying the weight of fall and winter. Perhaps the glorious greens and emerging yellows and purples are a reminder that change is inevitable and that we can embrace each new day simply as a new day.

Over the course of the past few weeks, I’ve heard positive comments from coaches, students, and staff about our faculty working with students during difficult times. Faculty supported students on their athletic journeys and made space for them when unexpected travel and cancellations occurred. Faculty helped and encouraged students experiencing crises, something most of us were not trained to do. Our faculty also encouraged and supported students in completing the last term and continuing on.

Similarly, I’ve heard the same about our staff. They have been kind and supportive of our students and each other as the unexpected happens. I’m grateful to each of you for embracing what it means to live and work in a community.

I ran into our admissions team very early in the morning last Friday as they were preparing for a student open house. While holding their signs, staff coordinated with each other to make sure students had a great experience. I saw teamwork and deep trust. Throughout the rest of the day, I saw them juggling tours, greeting students, answering questions, and being present in meaningful ways. I’m proud of them for their efforts, and I hope you are too!

I’m pleased to share just some of the other neat things that have been happening in and around the university.

Congratulations to our Digital Accessibility Committee on its incredibly productive second year of existence! Over the past year, they have accomplished much, including rolling out compulsory training on the WCAG guidelines, developing a Canvas shell to help faculty and staff learn to remediate issues, and conducting audits of our internal and external software, websites, policies, and documents. Thank you Chair Melody Karl, Charlotte Hull, Justin Montgomery, Kimberly Newman, Jenny Slinkard, Rochelle Cade, Le Anne Slippy, Russ Fagan, Christine Saladino, Jesse Cimon, Mary Fisher, Mollie Rockafellow, and Taylor Smith for keeping us organized and on the right track!

Charlotte Hull remains committed to extending digital accessibility training in the spring term, as the WCAG guidelines come into effect. She has been seeing 15-20 people at her training sessions, which is an encouraging sign of faculty and staff commitment!

A group of EOU administrators and staff, including Dr. Mollie Rockafellow, Bennie Moses-Mesubed, Mika Morton, Jordan Withers, and deans Dr. Scott McConnell, Nate Lowe and Dr. Rae Ette Newman, attended the Pacific Northwest Leadership Institute on Antisemitism in Higher Education at Portland State University. They learned about the history of antisemitism as well as how universities are combating it and trying to build more positive multiethnic and racial communities. We hope to learn from them in the coming weeks.

The success of our TRIO Student Support Services grant relies heavily on our ability to serve targeted numbers of students at specific milestones. Our next milestone is approaching, and EOU must serve more students in order to maintain our grant. I encourage you to spread the word about TRIO to students. TRIO provides individualized, no-cost support that helps students stay on track from orientation through graduation. A new grant-in-aid application is emerging that will also support students’ financial aid. Thank you for your support!

The first week of a term is always busy. This year is no exception! Senator Wyden opened an office in Pendleton, and I was there to celebrate with other leaders in the community. While in Pendleton, I met with BMCC President Mark Browning to discuss enhancing our partnership.

Lately, it seems this wouldn’t be a letter to you if I didn’t share something about the Prosperity Council. Guess what? I met with them again! The Ford Family Foundation hosted listening sessions with rural community leaders, and I shared our concerns about higher education funding in this state. Given the myriad issues we are seeing among the Oregon public universities, I’m hopeful those on the call recognized the need for a rethink. And of course, I’m keeping up with my full round of internal meetings!

Like many of you, I had some overdue items in our mandatory training series. Spring break provided me with a moment to catch up on these trainings. Though we hold regular meetings and preparedness sessions on EOU safety, I encourage all of you to invest time in the Active Assailant Preparedness Course. It’s a particularly good training focused on best practices.

I hope you enjoyed the “important data” I sent in this morning’s infoline.

Happy spring!

Sincerely,