 I'm Elizabeth Zinser, and I had the wonderful privilege of coming to Southern Oregon University as president in 2001, and I came from a couple of other presidencies of very different types of universities. They were public, but in other ways very different. One was the University of Idaho, and the other was the University of Kentucky as chancellor for the Lexington campus. So when I came to Southern Oregon University, I knew the region was wonderful, I knew the University had a terrific mission, and it was wonderful to come to a bit smaller institution that was poised for some further development in a beautiful setting here in Ashland with all of the culture and so on behind it. So that was a wonderful experience, and then I was at retirement age in 2006 and decided that it was time to let others take on the helm of the university and focus my time on hiking and kayaking and being healthy, and yet I have gotten into some other leadership roles. But one of my major national roles that I've retained for a long time after I retired is the Association of American Colleges and Universities. I was on the board for a couple of terms, chaired the board for two terms, and stayed close to them because of their mission in supporting faculty and students in very strong liberal education. It is true that for any presidency some of the things that stand out because they are so visible are the buildings that you had something to do with, although frankly there are many other aspects of building a university that are every bit as important if not in some cases more so. But it is fun to have those edifices if you will that serve the university, and when I came the main project was one that Sarah Hopkins Powell had guided in terms of generating the resources for the expansion and improvement of the library. It's an extraordinary library and she gets credit for what she did during her interim year in garnering the support from the state for that building renewal. But when I got here I had the privilege of being able to really guide the completion of it and getting all the construction done, and it was really a joy and we're all very, very proud of the quality of that facility, the purpose of it, how modern it became in terms of archives and new digital ways of doing business while at the same time preserving the really precious archives like the Shakespeare collection and many others. So that's something I feel very proud of and of course none of these projects are about what the individual president did, it's about teams of people and that was a really fun one. I did, my job really also was to raise the money for the completion of the project because there were some things we would have had to have given up that were important in the construction, didn't want to do that so we were able to find some generous donors to help put the capstone on that building. And then there were others that were maybe a little smaller like from a drone hall to expand the living opportunities for students on the campus. And we modernized that and made it more like a quasi apartment type pod building which was fun to do because that was fairly new at the time. But I think the major project and there are others but the major project that really propelled the university's capacity to grow into its true regional role was the Medford facility, the Higher Education Center. And there we did raise the money for that building and did it in partnership with RCC. So that again was a tremendous challenge. It had some fun moments like riding bikes to promote it all around Ashland and Medford with Peter Angstead and his kids who were very young at the time. Peter Angstead was the president then and my colleague of Rogue Community College. And that was a lot of fun because we also rode bikes around Ashland, which of course is very hilly and he was like 15 years younger than I was. So I had to keep up but I managed and but there were other challenges with that building. And one of the main one was a political one as you cited these can be political. And in this case, it was a situation where we were being so successful. And I think our Oregon University system and others didn't expect us to be so successful, but what really helped is that the entire chamber of commerce for Medford and the surrounding area, we got them all in a bus, took them up to Salem, parked them, went in early, parked them all in the first three rows of the Ways and Neans Committee and they knocked the socks off the Ways and Neans Committee. And other things like that really helped but the hardest part for me personally as president is getting a phone call from a member of our Oregon University System Board, not the chair, but a very powerful member who privately asked me to drop the project because the state did not want to fund any new projects, they only wanted to do renewals. And I had the very awkward moment of being gracious, thanking the individual for expressing his strong feelings about this. I asked, is this an order or is this a recommendation? And the response was, because he was not chair, it is a very, very strong recommendation. So I thought about it later and decided, if I have to fall on a sword on this one, this is too important to the university and the region, I'm not going to do that, so I just ignored it. And we went forward with the project, we got the first and the only new building in the entire state of Oregon's higher ed system that year. And that was for SOU and RCC and a joint project. I'm very proud of that, but there were some difficult moments and some fun moments in the course of accomplishing that. I love this photo, I have it in a prominent place in my house because it represents. SOU's engagement in a partnership with Rogue Community College, building on the articulation agreements that were there already and so on. But catapulting that relationship through shared facilities, through shared operations in many cases, toward opportunity for faculty to teach and interact with each other back and forth. The students benefited, we got far more students educated out of grants pass, because that was easier for them to get there, on and on and on. But what really was exciting is to have the governor treat this project that year in a recessionary period where they didn't want to fund any new buildings. Nonetheless, he went, Governor Kolingoski went all around the state of Oregon, promoting this as evidence of a vision that he hoped would develop all around the state in the relationships between the universities and the community colleges. So it was an important bricks and mortar project. It was also very important in terms of program development, student service, and the leadership we could provide to the state. We also were the first lead facility, we got the first lead award for a building that was green. And we were the first in the state, among all the higher education buildings, to get that designation for any of our new facilities. So that was also a point of great pride in how we had designed it and been committed to putting the resources into making sure that that was a green building, or would be, and it is. Well, we made every effort to start with the talent and potential talent and growth of our industries here in the region. We are first and foremost devoted to our role in the region. And, yes, we would not compromise in any way, and we would go anywhere to get the best service. But it was very clear that the best talent was right here, and having that partnership meant a lot. It helped the university immensely. We had lots of the leaders from Adroit over the years continue that relationship by serving on the foundation at the university, the SUU foundation, and in other ways. So it was a very reciprocal recognition, respect and support. You know, when I got here, and there always are moments where morale might be suffering a bit, I wouldn't say it was terribly serious. Everybody knew that we had very good people leading the institution, and some things were definitely getting accomplished under prior administrations. But there was tension, and I think it was really two things. One, as is ordinary, there was some uncertainty about the unfolding of a change in administration, and that always creates some tension, of course. I think the major thing in the culture that I encountered, even as a candidate, and I was aware of it when I came, but certainly encountered it here, is what I perceived to be a real division between many faculty who were completely devoted to the idea that we're a liberal arts college, we're a public liberal arts college here in Ashland, let's preserve that. And then there was another, on the other hand, there were those that were passionate about the regional role, and we need to be out there. And of course a lot of faculty, bless their hearts, were driving back and forth every day, or three or four times a week, to teach classes in Medford for people from Grants Pass, Medford and so on, working people. And the regional missions were very important. Barbara Scott was a key leader in that philosophy. So we had these two philosophies, and then there were some people in between that understood that they're not polar opposites. In fact, the relationship should be a very positive one, which is my belief. And I came out of a tradition where the value of liberal education for all students, no matter what major they were studying, whether it's business or nursing or teaching or engineering or agriculture or whatever it might be, having a strong liberal education, and by liberal I do not mean, and neither does the term mean, political liberal. It means having a broad-based education and incorporating that in the way you think about the world and your knowledge of the world. And that helps and provides opportunity for leadership at any level in any profession, and it is fundamental to our democracy. I am very passionate about that, but I do not view, and didn't then, view SOU's mission as solely wrapped around that goal. We needed to prepare people for jobs, for careers, for the technical and specific knowledge they needed to do that, and our primary mission was for the region in that respect. But I also knew that we would attract a more diverse range of students including geographically around the country and internationally if we gained a reputation for providing a really strong general education to all students. So we joined the Council on Public Liberal Arts Colleges. We were the only state in Oregon being a member of it, and we joined at that time only 14 other states that had such a designation. That put us in a wonderful position to recruit students nationally who really cared about getting a deep education and a broad education. So that was one element. And the other was moving forward with the building in Medford to enhance our regional outreach all over the region, particularly in the professions and business. So with those initiatives and a certain amount of argument in the culture about which was important, like having to put on the back burner the renewal of the theater building, hurt my heart because I love theater. It hurt my heart. But I knew that strategically the university had to have that regional facility to move that mission first. And I can't tell you how happy I am now to see that theater building and the arts environment actually have occurred. I regret I wasn't able to do it, but that doesn't matter. It got done and the vision was there at the time to do that as soon as we could. Same with science and expanding and improving and modernizing the science building, which has now happened, which is thrilling to see. So that's a long answer to a cultural division that eventually began to move together where people understood on campus if we're going to be a public liberal arts college in Ashland. We're public. We're not private. We're part of a community and it's got to involve community engagement. And that means in the Rogue Valley and in our region. And we aren't going to be able to really serve the region without strong professional programs. These two things are not counterproductive. They're not fighting with each other. They actually help to strengthen each other. And I think eventually that cultural division began to come together. And I look back on it with a great deal of satisfaction and gratitude to the faculty for wrestling with those questions and moving on. Who was your leadership team? How did you get work done? How did what? How did you get work done? Oh my heavens. In different ways the whole campus. Well I think I would start with when you say leadership team I have to say first that none of the leaders in any of the positions could get done what they were getting done if they didn't have really strong staff support. So I want to put in a plug right away for the people that take care of the campus the people that you know take care of our clerical needs and so on and so forth. So I think that's really critical to leadership success. So but the leadership team were primarily of course the vice presidents the president the provost being the lead person in the academic community we went through you know a search for that position to bring in Earl Potter and I must say the two of us were so different and it was such a blessing because we were so open with each other. He could tell me when I was off base and I could tell him you know and that relationship was really really special and I grieve to this day his passing you know a few years ago but that was really one of the best relationships I've had in terms of president provost relationship in the various universities where I served in both roles. So that was key and then of course student affairs vice president and critical to all of it is the finance side and business Ron Bolstead was our had been there for many years he was a key source and I must say when he started talking about retirement when I was getting closer to my retirement I was saying uh-uh and that's not going to happen for a year or two just hold on and so that was that was great because he had a lot of the history and he had very high integrity and the relationship was good because there are times and I've had this experience where I've either seen it or experienced it a bit where the person in charge of the budget can sometimes really manipulate policy Ron never did that and um quite frankly I'd seen enough that anybody working for me in that role couldn't have done that but he wouldn't have anyway so that was a that was really wonderful and so I don't know there were many in that team there's our support staff and the deans being so critical to the future of the colleges and the way they work together and I just have to say again I really pay a lot of tribute to tribute to Earl Potter as our provost in creating the kind of relationship and providing the kind of leadership he did in his primary team with all of the deans. One thing I've always loved to do when you're in a role as president of a university you can allow that to be a hundred and twenty percent stressful by all the challenges and things that you're trying to do and even the really of course many of the really good things you're trying to get done are not necessarily easy. I like to have some element of that job be just fun for me. So what was fun for me? Number one it was actually trying to find time which was often very difficult and I didn't do as much as I'd like to get out on the campus and sit in a class to get out on campus and go see what some faculty and students are working on in their research lab. And every time I did that it was informative and it was fun. Now I also in my job as a fundraiser because presidents are fundraisers for their institution and foundation I thought okay I'm new and I want to combine two things one I want to have fun, number two I want to meet the movers and shakers in the region to try to help create the relationships that lead to a joyful way of raising funds for the university. So I thought I want to do a wild and scenic raft trip through the down the road river. How about we get a bunch of the mover and shaker women from all over the valley because I can't really do this with the fellas we'll do something else with the fellas but we can do that you know people that were movers and shakers some of whom already close to the university a few that had kind of like moved back for one reason or another but won't bring them back. And I said look I would love to get to know you as a person you obviously make a big difference in the region I'm brand new and let's have a fun way of getting acquainted with each other because that can be very helpful to me. So they jumped in and I think there were about 12 or 13 of us and then we got a guide from Brendan Bill Johnson Brendan Bill Williams who used to be at Harry and David used to do a lot of these they'd invited Don and me to go with their family which I had done so I hired the same guy we all shared the costs and we went for four days down through the wild and scenic camping out on the ground in tents you know jumping in the water being totally silly with a clear understanding whatever goes on on the river stays on the river and we got acquainted I thought that was going to be a one-time thing and then they all said no we're going to do this every year so we did that for five years in a row I think something like that four or five years in a row and then when Mary came in Cullen came in as president I thought now I need to back off and these are people that she needs to meet and even though I'm going to miss being on it she doesn't need me in the picture so encouraged her to do this with them and she didn't the first year she was a bit shy and then the second year some of them convinced her to go and she had a ball so that was interesting we have a lot of interesting pictures well I got a strike given the year that we're in right now in 2020 and the challenges of the pandemic and the fire here and the fires elsewhere the impact of all that on our economy and in particular on the university right now any challenges I had pale compared to what Linda Schott is working on now you know with her team so I want to start by saying that but for any president you're going to have some challenges you expect that but yes indeed we did have the 9-11 and that was such a poignant moment for everybody nobody could forget where they were what they were doing and so on when I was waking up that morning my husband was already up and Don came in and said you need to come here and I got on my TV right away it was very early in the morning I did I got dressed really fast went down to my office called physical plant asked them to bring a television over into my office so I could keep track of stuff during the day I don't remember all the details but I remember that going in really early and trying to get in touch with things and then did a variety of things during the immediate crisis of all that I got a message to the campus and recognizing the horror of the tragedy and people needed to do what they needed to do but to maintain clarity with regard to what we were doing with students to be sure to communicate well but I tried to be open and trust people's judgment about what they personally needed and then over the next few days a number of lovely people on the campus rallied with me to think about how do we have a community recognition and expression of sorrow around what had happened and people like Terry Longshore from music he made an instrument, a bell a beautiful bell out of the metal end of a fire hose representing the fire people and things like that and we used that in a campus community event out in the plaza at Stevenson Union I called in with some help from my colleagues the spiritual leaders of every conceivable religious background or persuasion and we had these individuals come in to provide their inspiration and recognition during a little ceremony and then a huge part of the campus came out and just stood and assembled while we had this little program of recognition and warning together and then it was kind of an inspiration at the last minute Terry had this bell there and we were going to just like ring it once at the end of the ceremony and invite people to quietly move away and somehow it was just a flash of immediate in the moment inspiration that came to me from where I don't know that everybody needed an opportunity to climb that bell and so I invited at the end anyone who would find it meaningful to hit this bell that Terry Longshore has made for us please line up and we will pass the baton so to speak and you hit it once and move it to the next and huge number of people lined up took a long time but it was very meaningful and everybody came through and hit that bell so on a situation like that part of it is planning, responding to it right away trying to feel what the community is feeling and what kinds of things could help people more and together and get support so that's a long story but there's one there was a recession and we had a lot of budget cutting to do I don't remember the particulars of any of that I just know that Ron and I and the team rallied lots of times to figure out how best to do that and preserve the integrity of the university and how best to communicate it of course there was a lot of argument there was a lot of tension I just don't remember the details of it and part of that is probably just healthy forgetting some of the painful things that happened I know we did a fair amount of cutting and consolidating in some programs and things like that as best we could we put some things on hold I know we went forward with a couple of really strategically important hires but otherwise kind of froze the usual things you hear about but that also launched us because we were ready and wanting to do it anyway of course is to move into a fresh strategic planning but to get people to think about that in the middle of a crisis is kind of hard to do and yet it's important because you want to be inspired by a longer view when you're trying to do that so we did kind of get that started without making it a huge campus-wide endeavor because people had to get used to some of the immediate decisions but very soon thereafter we created a group of people that was more representative and got into visioning the future of the university once things stabilized a little bit you know just the other day I had the occasion to interact I ran into and had a chance to interact with one of our beloved staff members who's not at the university now but was at the time and he said to me I just need to say something to you I will never forget the way you stood up the bisexual lesbian community in the context of that because that's what it was it was a hateful dynamic targeted to people of different sexual and gender identities of all kinds students were very much being harmed by that and they were trying to provide some meaningful reaction to it and again it's one of those painful things that I don't remember details about but I do remember that I got involved very early and stood by the students and kind of participated in some of the rallies that they were creating I think that's what this gentleman was reflecting on he wasn't himself in a minority area there but it meant a lot to him I think there wasn't nearly as much as what is available now and that's been a national movement thankfully and SOU is right in there with a very big supportive community and endeavor along that line as well as in other areas where bias remains a very serious systemic and unconscious problem SOU has done a lot over the years since I was there but yes we were addressing that we had our African American Studies program I know we moved our Native American Studies program from just kind of like a program to a minor and then to a major to really recognize it and I remember doing that and really enjoying doing that because I've had a lot of engagement with Native American tribes in other parts of the country where I've been and here as well so I had some connection to the community and some trust with the community and in terms of gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual community on the campus it was really not out there nearly as much in those early years of 2000 but we did have the Women's Studies program and the Women's Studies program was really helpful in that regard so yes we did have some very visible means for that community and all the different elements of the identities within that community to gain some support but the programs have grown the services and programs have grown significantly since then and a lot of it was stimulated by the negative, hateful reactions that I had an opportunity to work with in 2005 there was a really interesting project I had a chance to participate in that brought the relationship with Klamath with OIT at the time with the title into a closer association and it had to do with Crater Lake Crater Lake was going into its centennial and so they were creating a new foundation which had been happening in other national parks and we were one of the early ones that got in on that and thought it was a wonderful idea and created a foundation because the federal government can't or doesn't fund all the things that one can do in a national park and so we wanted more educational programs to take advantage of it for kids and that kind of thing so I was invited to be on that initial commission to create that trust and so was the president at OIT a very good friend so the two of us went on that together along with some leaders from Portland and throughout the state and here and out of that we created a what we called the classroom at Crater Lake with a high school in Medford and experimented with teaching the students a variety of subjects in a variety of their structured classes using examples from Crater Lake and taking them up there in each of the seasons but that also propelled a relationship with OIT in the sciences and in other areas so that was really wonderful our primary relationship with RCC that had developed long before I got here when RCC came over into this region from Grant's Pass and created their campuses so when we were working on the building it was an opportunity, a very visible opportunity to bring faculties together to talk about where we might have some joint efforts and when we built the building we created a common advising center a common admissions center, this kind of thing so that we could build on the transfer and save a lot of money for both institutions because we were able to train up the counselors, for example to be able to counsel students that came in ready for one or the other so we merged a variety of the services for students when we were able to create that building so there are other examples but, yeah, statewide of course there was always a challenge for SOU and the other regional more regionally focused institutions which goes on today even under a different governance system where the larger universities especially quite frankly U of O can give us some grief when, and also because people understand that University of Oregon is Oregon's research intensive university they understand that OSU is Oregon's land grant statewide public university they understand that Portland State University is an urban institution serving an urban area people don't have a clear notion always about what's unique about SOU what's unique about Eastern what's unique, you know, about Western OIT that's a lot easier because they're very focused on the technology fields but the other three including SOU can be seen as just a small college kind of nestled in some rural area of Oregon and that can be the metro view of it what was important to us is to create distinction and one of the ways we did that at SOU and really improve the status within Oregon is to step out and proclaim that we were the public liberal arts college serving a public mission with professions and a strong broad education that educated students for democracy and educated students for their jobs in a harmonious fashion and we positioned ourselves with COPLAC on the national level and got attention within the state I got pushed back from U of O well, what do you mean? We're the liberal arts institution I mean, that's what we do I know you have strong liberal arts programs and courses, that's true but your mission is a research intensive university and it does affect the focus in that area let us have our mission let us have our distinction it'll help all boats rise and in time we gained some recognition for that and felt like we're not competing with you on this but that is something we're going to stand out nationally for and we made that happen of course these three institutions that began as normal colleges for preparing teachers that's a long time ago but that's the history it isn't what they are now but it is very important to honor that history and not only that, it's a way of serving one of the most valuable professions one could ever prepare people to enter teaching is not compensated in this nation the way it ought to be in my view but it remains one of the most influential professions in creating our future so what do the different institutions do? well they all offer teacher education now including the research universities and so on so that's a good thing but I think the strength in teacher education ought to derive and be recognized for this historical commitment to that field on the part of the three schools that have kept their commitment to the normal college beginnings I will say that from my understanding the strongest teacher education programs and leadership programs that developed at a time in the history of Oregon has been more at Western and we have very strong ones too but I think they developed quite a national reputation in that regard and then of course Eastern has a tremendous tradition has done some remarkably creative things in rural education look where they're located and they started all sorts of virtual learning a long time ago have students from New York and all over but their research and their activities and their programs are very grounded in the needs of a rural area and there are lots of rural areas all around the country so they can be an inspiration to a lot of others as well as doing a good job for themselves so each of our institutions should and could these three smaller regional schools could and should and are at least I'll say are for SOU because I know that's happening and the current leadership and I know I certainly tried to promote that is to create some clear understanding first here and then throughout the state as to where we distinguish ourselves doesn't mean we don't do other things but where can we say we provide leadership in this area and we're recognized nationally and we can attract students from anywhere in the world because of the strength we have here and when we not only try to keep students here when they graduate that are from the region we can help the region immensely by attracting students from all over and having them not only get a good education but fall in love with the region and be here I think the Schneider which we value very much has developed tremendously in more recent years but it is true, while I was there we were really working in a very focused way on the performing arts and one of the reasons for that was the opportunity to develop a much more robust relationship with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and we did do that Paul Nicholson was the executive director there you know, what I picked up in this I don't know quite how to say this diplomatically but when I first got here and I love theater my mom and dad used to come up to Ashland all the time and they would do a lot of the plays I was familiar with it but I really wanted to even when I first got here to benefit from what OSF has to offer but I was also I knew that we had real strength in the arts in general and was a bit surprised that there didn't seem to be a very concerted effort in terms of a relationship there so I started getting acquainted with Paul and his team and Libby Apple and initially I got this feeling that because they're so international they didn't really have a lot of enthusiasm initially in having too much of a visible tie to a regional school to a school that they perceived didn't have an international reputation like they did and I understood that but with relationship building we saw all sorts of advantages to lifting up this relationship and the value that it would have in both directions which wasn't initially seen real easily and so eventually Paul and I became very committed to building that relationship and so what we did is we identified areas in which we could work together on the stage though that was very important for our students to have experiences on the stage and with actors and so on but we looked at it in terms of some business operations some other kinds of things where we could benefit and so we had lead people get together with their lead people the finance people the artistic people etc and then we began to have periodic times on their campus sometimes well in the upshot of it for about a year or so we were able to develop a kind of multi-layered relationship that got better and especially in terms of the acting area we wanted more of our students to be invited to be understudies to do whatever that is happening now tremendously it's very exciting we didn't have a lot of it at the time we had internships a couple it's much richer now and I remember we put out a document I've never been able to find sense but it was a kind of glossy document we put out that had the OSF logo on one side and the SOU logo on the other and we laid out in very simple words what each was doing and where they tied together and had this one page thing and sort of was sharing it with everybody it was a really nice little document that talked about what we were doing so when I look at what's happening now I know that we took it to kind of a new level at the time but that from that platform it's grown a lot and so I'm pleased that that momentum never stopped when I retired from the university I put quotes around air quotes around it because about a month or two later I forget it wasn't too long afterward the Chancellor for the Oregon University System called me up and said I need to have you come back to work and help all seven of the universities move forward with their liberal education mission so that was a recognition that we were doing the right thing here and I agreed to do that it started out half time in the state working with mostly the provost of all seven on their efforts in that area and that was a fun project I met a lot of interesting people so that was for three years so I didn't really retire until 2009 then I started figuring out how am I going to rewire I don't feel retired and when people say have you retired they know I've rewired and I knew that I had the freedom how do I want to spend the next 20 years of my life or whatever I have a lot of longevity in the family I'm still healthy and I'm 80 and I figure I might make 100 and I know that I really need to think about how can I continue to stay engaged and not because my ego needs it but because it's part of who I am but I also want to commit a lot of time to just going out in nature which I love and getting back to doing things I did that I couldn't do it all after I got real busy with my career so I started a hiking group I joined a hiking group then I started my own under the umbrella of that one and then I bought a kayak and started kayaking and I now run a kayaking group so all that's going on but meanwhile I ended up tapped by our Rotary Club to be president of the Rotary Club so that meant a three year commitment president-elect and then president and then past president all with specific jobs and that was in 2017 and then just recently people may know Melody Rose a wonderful person who was for a while Chancellor of the Oregon University System and she had then left there and gone to Merhurst and then had the challenge of very graciously closing that college when it became necessary well she was due to become the president of the International Women's Forum Oregon Chapter and then she just got a job being the chancellor for the system in Nevada so she took off to go to Nevada and I'm on the board for the International Women's Forum for Oregon and everybody looked at me so I'm now president of the International Women's Forum for Oregon and I said one year, one year only I'm kayaking, I'm hiking you know etc yeah we understand but you need to do this okay I will do this so now I'm working with them to set up a succession plan and do some things that are you know and it's fun but it's a work that puts me at the computer and I have a vaccine and we all are vaccinated I'll start having to run up and down I-5 some more but so that's fun but with SOU I have tried to the first year or two I really got out of the way it's always fun to run into somebody every once in a while a staff person or a faculty that I don't have reason to have contact with these days somewhere and they'll say oh you still have an ask one I said yeah of course I've been living here a long time but but yes I have become more involved after I had a hiatus for a year or two because I didn't want to interfere with the next administration that would have been totally inappropriate for every administration since I have simply said I'm here I love the university I'll do anything you want me to do but it's going to be your choice and your initiative so with Linda she'd been very receptive to my re-engagement and indeed I have been two ways one is I did establish an endowment that because I'm not a wealthy person I'm just adding something to each year from my required minimum distribution and my aim is to get it up to where it can really be helpful in supporting students and faculty particularly in innovative ways of making sure the students get the highest quality liberal education while they're studying in any field and you can see that's my passion okay so I've tried to do that that's the legacy and hopefully that when I do pass away which will be sooner than later that if anybody wants to commemorate me they can do that and the other way is when I was president of the Rotary Club of Ashland I thought oh good I get to have a project and I'm going to make it tie to the university so we never had a Rotorack program we've never had a Rotorack club which is for college students to be like Rotarians in fact to be Rotarians and to engage in the community and service which SOU does a lot with but to have a club where the students can be involved in the community and service projects and have the backing and support of our Rotary Club so they are now an official club on the campus I'm the advisor from the Rotary Club and Melissa Anderson over at the university is their faculty advisor and so those students have been for the last three years doing some wonderful things they do a lot of things locally like Ashland reads for the kids in the schools but they also do an international project they've been raising money a lot of money for shelter box which provides shelter shelters for people who are refugees or people who have been dislocated based on tragedies like fires and things of that sort and so they've raised a lot of money and they've been designated by Rotary International as a hero club for for the shelters so I'm very proud of them for that and it's fun to be involved in with SOU in helpful ways like that I have nothing to do with policy and so on because that's in the hands of Linda Schott and her team and she's doing a wonderful job well you know over the years when I look back I know that there are certain themes that evolved that speak to who I am and a very large component of who I am is my belief in the value of education as far along the spectrum as possible with the understanding that virtually everybody to sustain a healthy democracy needs to have at least the basic broad education in the liberal arts and sciences and that became such a passion that whether when I was a dean when I was a provost and the three times I was in the chief executive roles was a theme throughout and so that element intertwined with the professional training and the capacity to work and have a livelihood it's about having a life and enjoying life for our graduates but it's about making a contribution with enough knowledge and enough intellectual curiosity and critical thinking to actually make a difference in the smallest and biggest ways you can and I know that may sound like a lot of rhetoric but it is really I think so important to our democracy and today I think we all can see how critical that is to bringing us all together across the spectrums of all kinds to address the next stage in eradicating racial bias and particularly the more complex elements along that line that are unconscious or that are built into our systems we can do that but we can only do it with a broad and deep understanding of where humanity has been over a long period of time and what our capacities are to become better people and better communities so that is just such a matter of who I am and I know that's been a critical factor no matter what job I had as I went through my higher education career even though I started out and trained in a profession so I think I would leave it for me on that level and say that I think SOU the Golden it's a gem in this regard it's less well known nationally in this regard than than I'd like it to be but it's grown in its recognition over the years since I left the university and I'm glad to have been able to help you know build on the roots that people like Steve Reno laid down in this regard and to see it continue and to see the current administration devoted to that strength I love being in Ashland and this valley in general, this region in general is precious in terms of the environment we have and our devotion to the climate but also in terms of the level of education and the diversity of our region which we're trying to grow and build on even more SOU is a fundamentally important part of this community and I want it to be recognized always for that and protected and supported by the people of this region