Next president ready for SOU challenge

Cullinan says backlash over her appointment is not surprising; Potter vows to help ease the way

By Alan Panebaker
Ashland Daily Tidings

CULLINAN

Mary Cullinan is moving to Southern Oregon at the beginning of August with a carload of belongings and hopes of learning more about Southern Oregon University.

After the Oregon State Board of Higher Education announced Cullinan as the new president of Southern Oregon University one week ago, reaction was less than enthusiastic. Many locals expected SOU provost and vice president Earl Potter III to be selected. However, the former provost and vice president of Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas said that won’t hinder her aspirations of working together with everyone at SOU.

“It’s always nerve racking moving to a new job,” Cullinan said. “Every university has its own culture, and so does each state.”

She said she had always liked the area after coming to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival when she lived in the Bay Area. Holding a Ph.D. in English, Cullinan was interested in a liberal arts university. Her transition from teacher to chair of and English department to dean of a college of arts and letters and eventually a provost position led Cullinan to the SOU president’s post. She also interviewed for the provost position at SOU three years ago, the job that Potter eventually filled. Cullinan’s resume includes degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Wisconsin and numerous advisory positions at universities in California.

Despite the call of some, including Sen. Alan Bates, D-Ashland, to revisit the decision, George Pernsteiner, chancellor of the Oregon University System, said the decision was final.

The new SOU president is not surprised by skepticism in Southern Oregon about the State Board of Higher Education’s presidential decision.

“When you have a number of strong candidates vying for a position, there will be mixed reactions,” Cullinan said.

Pernsteiner echoed Cullinan’s sentiment that the board’s selection inevitably would cause some negative reactions.

“I understand the disappointment,” Pernsteiner said. “He (Potter) has a very wide and deep level of support at Southern Oregon. My hope is that once people get to know Mary, they’ll feel the same about her.”

Potter said he was disappointed in not being selected, but he respects the board’s decision. He said it was his responsibility to work with the new president in a partnership.

“The community needs to see in me reassurance that this is going to be OK,” Potter said. “A lot of folks don’t want to lose my contributions in this role.”

Cullinan is ready to work with administrators on programs to improve the education system, increase enrollment and retain existing students. Although the new university president doesn’t have any specific plans, she wants to hit the ground running when her new job starts Sept. 1. Cullinan said she needs to learn more about the college before she starts making any changes. She said one of the goals of student retention includes better communication with students and families.

As far as existing programs Cullinan wants to work on, she praised Earl Potter for his work with the Foundations of Excellence program at SOU. The national program helps a university assess how it deals with first-year college students, and may reveal some clues to the causes of attrition after the first year.

Cullinan’s family history shows a lineage of political connection. Her father was a speech writer for presidents Eisenhower, Johnson and Kennedy, and his connections with Oxford University inspired a love of the arts that helped lead her to Southern Oregon.

Cullinan said her English and fine arts roots and the practice of spreading knowledge about them has been the main motivation for her.

“I’ve always been interested in writing and literature, and I think it’s crucial for society to teach them to young people,” Cullinan said. “That’s what gets me out of bed every morning.”

Brian Oswald, a faculty senator at Stephen F. Austin State, said he thought Cullinan would be an academic-centered president from his experience with her in Texas. He said she likes committees, so if some people at SOU don’t, that might be a potential conflict, but otherwise he said she would be a good team-building type of manager.

Oswald said his experience with Cullinan revealed her abilities, enthusiasm and advocacy for students.

“Others on campus do not agree,” Oswald wrote in an e-mail, “but then we have over 400 faculty.”

Staff writer Alan Panebaker can be reached at 482-3456 x 227 or apanebaker@dailytidings.com.

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