SOU trustees OK plan to cut president’s salary by 20%, part of $6M in reductions

Published 11:00 am Thursday, July 31, 2025

Rick Bailey’s leadership praised; full scope of cuts expected to be announced Friday at ‘campus conversation’ with employees

Starting on Friday, Aug. 1, and per his own request to the Southern Oregon University Board of Trustees, SOU’s President Rick Bailey will take a 20% or $53,000 reduction to his $290,000 salary over the remainder of the fiscal year, following an unanimous virtual vote by SOU Trustees Wednesday afternoon.

According to meeting materials, his pay will return to his full salary with the start of the next fiscal year on July 1, 2026.

Trustees approved SOU’s budget on June 20 that called for the university to make $5 million in cuts in order to “deal with a structural deficit,” according to Sheila Clough, chair of the board. Declining enrollment as well as reduced state and federal support are contributors to needed reductions to the campus, according to SOU, and have since increased to $6 million or nearly 10% of the $66 million budget.

Details of the cutbacks will be announced by Bailey at a “campus conversation” with employees Friday morning at the university.

Southern Oregon University President Rick Bailey in his office in Churchill Hall on April 30, 2024. Ashland.news photo by Bob Palermini

“This certainly has been the most difficult week I’ve had since I’ve been here, and that’s even knowing what we went through with SOU Forward and how heart-wrenching that was,” Bailey told trustees. 

Bailey made the request on Wednesday in order to include his reduction in pay in the current draft plan of action, which he will make available to the board of trustees on Thursday, July 31.

It’s not the first time an SOU president has asked for a cut in pay. 

Seated in a board room on Wednesday, Bailey told the board of trustees over Zoom that he made the request amount following in the footsteps of his predecessor and former SOU President Linda Schott, who also faced financial difficulties during her time at SOU. Before he took the job in 2021, he read through the meeting minutes of a trustee meeting where she asked for the same salary reduction.

“I’m following her example,” Bailey said, noting Schott’s request.

The plan will detail how he plans to cut $6 million from the $66 million budget approved by trustees in June. Bailey has also asked the university to freeze salary increases for the time being.  

“Although what you’re voting on today is not a solution to the structural problem … I think it raises awareness at the state level for the crisis that we’re experiencing,” Bailey told trustees. “The irony is, we can have dozens of people who lose their positions here and that tragedy, obviously it makes the local news, but it doesn’t make it statewide.”

Bailey noted that reducing a university president’s salary, as he is asking trustees to do, would likely draw more statewide attention, including from media, such as The Oregonian.

“What you’re voting on is really helping to raise the alarm at the state (level) and really make sure that they understand the pain and suffering that our faculty and staff are going to have to endure because of the changes that we’re facing, with the recognition that there’s a lot more that needs to happen at the state level and that as an institution, we need to brace ourselves for the effects that are happening at the federal (level),” Bailey said.

Despite anxiety around finances, Bailey noted there is a unity, a recognition across the campus that a lot of the “crisis that we have now is actually being generated outside of the campus,” he added. “As anxious and as painful as all of this effort, I know that there is this cohesion knowing that we’re trying to do the things that we can for the institution.”

Clough, who serves as board chair, added context to Bailey’s salary.

“President Bailey is among the lowest-paid university presidents across the Oregon system and, when we reviewed President Bailey’s salary against … other universities SOU’s size, President Bailey’s compensation is on the lower end of that range,” Clough told trustees. 

“The reduction in the president’s salary is that of his own request and is not at the direction of the board,” she added. “This is not a conversation that the board has generated.”

Bailey shared apologies for even asking trustees for the reduction request, referring to how it already is a low salary compared to other universities. 

“I know that I’m putting the board in an awkward spot, so let me start with an apology,” he said.

“It’s a difficult thing and I am sensitive about the market and I am sensitive about where SOU sits in it.”

Trustee Daniel Santos shared support for Bailey.

“It’s a tough time,” Santos said. 

“Sadly, a lot of this, well, a great portion of this, is due to lack of support at the state and federal level(s) and a lot of other factors. Declining enrollment being one of them.

“I am so grateful to have President Bailey at the helm as we adjust the sails,” he added.

Trustee Debra Fee Jing Lee also added that she appreciated Bailey’s sacrifice.

“It shows that we’re all in this together,” Lee said.

Bailey shared appreciation for trustee comments, but asked for no celebration of his request to be made as other employees on campus will experience worse impacts.

“There are a lot of people who we love and care about — faculty and staff — who are going to be part of the plan that you’re going to see tomorrow, and it’s a provisional plan, who are sacrificing more than I am sacrificing,” Bailey said. 

Reach Ashland.news reporter Holly Dillemuth at hollyd@ashland.news. This story first appeared at Ashland.news.