Posted on May 7, 2026May 8, 2026 by Stephen — Leave a comment

Southern Oregon University: From Institutional Decline to a Vibrant Learning Community

The following is a vision for the transformation of Southern Oregon University (SOU) in response to the Deloitte plan of April 2026.

While institutional planning often focuses on managing decline through specialization and fiscal constraint, the true opportunity for SOU lies in a radical reframe: becoming a place-rooted hub for humane community leadership and lifelong collaborative inquiry.

Diving Into The Foundational Rabbit Hole

The White Rabbit proposal is compelling and fairly complete. My thoughts on the entire proposal would be too much for this post, so I will suggest some modifications to their Lines for the Room on their page 18, later in this post.

But first, I believe there are more foundational questions to be asked in the board’s conversation.

Posted on February 2, 2019February 2, 2019 by Stephen — Leave a comment

Doing Poetry: A Poem

Poetry is lifting the heavy rocks.

The rocks in the boundary between the sensed world that we agree upon,
And that ineffable world at the edges of our own consciousness. Continue reading Doing Poetry: A Poem

Posted on November 19, 2018August 3, 2020 by HLI Staff — Leave a comment

Stephen Interviewed by Heidi Gehman

HLI Int18.003b

Heidi Gehman had some questions for Stephen about HLI. Heidi is a higher education administrator and former colleague of Stephen’s at Oregon Extension. This is part of Stephen’s conversation with Heidi about her work here.

Topics discussed in this interview

- Integrated, whole self leadership
- Self leadership
- Fear-based vs. hope-based motivation
- Impeccability
- Wisdom jigs

Continue reading Stephen Interviewed by Heidi Gehman

Posted on September 20, 2018August 3, 2020 by HLI Staff — 1 Comment

Interview with Heidi Gehman

HLI Int18.003

Stephen had the pleasure of talking about self leadership with Heidi Gehman, a higher education administrator and former colleague of Stephen’s at Oregon Extension, where she was teaching college courses in the Humanities. Stephen talks to Heidi about more humane leadership here.

Topics discussed in this interview

- Hope
- Impeccability
- The moral life
- Iris Murdoch’s concept of “intentional attention”
- How to get the ego out of the way of truth

Continue reading Interview with Heidi Gehman

Posted on May 4, 2018January 26, 2023 by Stephen — 1 Comment

Creative Self Emergence and Rilke’s Poetry

If we are lucky enough to move beyond our basic needs for safety and belonging, we can begin the process of earning the esteem of ourselves and others. A few lucky souls even get to move toward self actualization in Maslow’s model.

But, for many, leadership opportunities look like nurturing their own and other’s creative self emergence. Continue reading Creative Self Emergence and Rilke’s Poetry