News Release

June 23, 2009

Contact:           Holly East (Bates)       Andrew Ainsworth (Buckley)

                        (503) 986-1703         (503) 986-1405

Bates & Buckley Secure Funding for SOU & RCC Projects

SB 5505 & 5506 will bring jobs, greater educational opportunities to region

Senator Alan Bates (D-Ashland) and Representative Peter Buckley (D-Ashland) are pleased to announce preliminary legislative approval for three capital construction projects benefiting Southern Oregon University and Rogue Community College. Included in a state bonding package passed today by the Joint Committee on Ways & Means Subcommittee on Capital Construction & Information Technology is $5.5 million for the new SOU Theatre Arts Building, $5.5 million for seismic retrofitting of SOU's Churchill Hall, and $1.4 million for deferred maintenance projects at RCC.

"These projects are necessary," said Bates. "Students are being turned away from SOU because of limited space to house theatre arts. Further delay of maintenance at RCC actually increases our costs over time, and we've been advised for years that Southern Oregon is due for a seismic event. For those reasons, and because we are putting people back to work at living-wage jobs, it's just plain good policy."

The $5.5 million in Oregon XI-G state bonds secured for the SOU Theatre Arts Building renovation and expansion is a significant investment in a project that promises to raise the status of SOU's already exceptional educational offerings in the arts.

"Having spent over 20 years of my life working in theatre, I have seen first hand the valuable role the arts play in our society," said Buckley, House Co-Chair of the Joint Committee on Ways & Means. "This new theatre arts complex, combined with SOU's unique collaboration with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, will provide future generations of aspiring thespians with the ability to obtain a world-class education in Southern Oregon."

SB 5505 & 5506 now go to the full Joint Committee on Ways & Means where they are expected to be approved later today.

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