Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 08-04-25_MONDAY_8AM

Episode Date: August 4, 2025

Lucretia calls about the earlier AI guest with a comment, Dr. Dennis Powers talks with me about Crater Lake history and then a dive into the SOU cuts and budget carnage. Will there BE an SOU??

The Bill Myers Show podcast is sponsored by Clouser Drilling. They've been leading the way in southern Oregon well drilling for over 50 years. Find out more about them at ClouserDrilling.com. Dr. Powers joins me here after the Kim Commando digital update that'll be coming up. Lucretia, you wanted to have a quick comment there on the artificial intelligence conversation I had with the Canadian researcher a little bit earlier this morning. Any thoughts on that? Go ahead. Oh, yeah, it definitely concerns me. I mean, we know garbage in, garbage out, and we know

they're feeding us scientism and all this fake information. What could go wrong when you have artificial intelligence that means fake intelligence? And then you've got these dummies that just think it's the Word from God or something. It's absolutely a fact. Yeah. I found that interesting that David, the gentleman who I was talking with, was he actually agreed with me that one of his concerns, though, was the way that it would be approached in education, in which you have, you know, young people who have not cognitively developed yet or really grasped the reason, the nuts and bolts of why they were

there to be educated, then being plugged into the artificial intelligence aspect of things. And not in no memory. Yeah, and not using, exactly not using the tool. And that was in a fascinating research paper they were finding out in which young students that were using artificial intelligence didn't even remember what they themselves had submitted and wrote because they didn't really do it. Yeah. Yeah, I'm looking forward to finding out more about that and the pre-orders of it are on right now. Thanks for the call, LaCrescia. Appreciate that. And the rest of the

digital world is coming up here in a moment with Kim Commando and then Dr. Dennis Powers. I said then Dr. Dennis Powers. I said, and Dr. Dennis Powers. I'm pushing this button. Hello. There we go. This hour of The Bill Meyers Show is sponsored by Fontana Roofing. For roofing gutters and sheet metal services, visit Fontanaroofingservices.com.

For over four decades, Dusty's Transmissions has been your trusted source for top-notch service. And where past meets present. How you doing, Doc? Welcome. Good to past meets present. And how you doing Doc? Welcome. Good to have you on. Oh, it's always a pleasure to lead off my week with you. So I'm here and you have the shotgun and we have the retrievers. Okay, well I'll tell you what. Let's do our little historical thing here first because we'll get that. It's kind of a nice little palate cleanser out of

serious news. And then we'll get back into serious stuff because I had a feeling that you were digging more into what's happening at Southern Oregon University. And why don't we dig into that here in just a few minutes? Why don't we do that? Okay? Okay, sounds like a winner. All right, so today we profile in our historic... And by the way, where past meets present, that book is still available. And you can get that at hellgatepress.com, the local publisher to do this. And Crater Lake is what we're talking about today. Last week it was Shasta and the Lemurians. Do we have any buried or any, I guess, any stories of aliens that are living inside Crater Lake or underneath it? Well, we have a lot of different sides to Crater Lake, as you're pointing out.

Interestingly enough, both were discovered at about the same time. In this case, Crater Lake was a year before by a California prospector. Of course it was a California prospector. That's why everybody was coming out here back in those days, right? Looking for gold in M. Thar Hills. And it was, and you see also what was happening here is that not only was the East Coast, you know, coming in on, you know, various land grants, but also with the Civil War that was just a few years afterwards, you had people that were coming in here getting away from all

of the fighting. And in any event, what's really interesting, Bill, is that this crater lake was formed about 8,000 years ago by an actual explosion of the volcano. It was 40 times more powerful than Mount St. Helens. Oh boy. And it blew off the top 5,000 feet, but then the lava flows sealed its bottom. And then this was all filled up over countless years

with trillions of gallons of water. Deepest lake in the United States, some 1900 feet. It's so clear that as we see when we go there, it has a world clarity record of 142 feet down, which is due to not only the clarity of the water, great depth, but the way light interacts with water molecules, which I found interesting, Bill, because shorter wavelengths, which are blues, are more easily scattered than reds, orange, yellows, and greens that are soaked up. And that's why it looks like, that's why it looks blue

to our eye. Yes. Very interesting. Absolutely right. Plus the fact that to give an idea of how sturdy and hardy our descendants were is that when Peter Britt took the first surviving picture of Crater Lake in 1874, it was an 11-day journey. It took five days to get there, a huge wagon with 1,200 pounds of equipment, half of that photographic equipment, three days to wait for the perfect time to take the picture, and then three days back. There are a

number of stories as you're bringing up that have to do with the fact that Crater Lake has its disappearances, its unsold murders, you know, any place you have a place that that's remote, you'll have also a different side that none of us will see when we're coming in over the summer to see it. But the other one was that the 1945 Hellcat Squadron that was flying over Crater Lake at that time hit the clouds and one of them never landed. So for 35 years the Rangers were able, my friend, to discover about where the whereabouts might be, and it then took Larry Smith, who is the person about Crater Lake. I've known Larry for a long time.

Jacksonville, Woodlands Association has done a lot of different good things for our area. And in any event, he was a ranger there during the summer, and he actually took the Navy out to where the debris was, and then they finally found the remains of the pilot. 35 years later, that was how remote the area was. Yeah, by the way, where was that? Was it in the lake itself or around it? Oh, good question. Actually, it was around it. It had managed to go into a very rural area that was still part of the National Park. And what people really need to recall is that when they're enjoying, you know, a hike around there to be sure they know where they're going,

there have been, and especially be very careful during snowfalls, because people have just plain disappeared going on snow expeditions, but we're always very adventurous. And this is one of the prime places in not only Southern Oregon, but also this country. Now, the first non-Native American to take a look at Crater Lake, you started it off, was Hillman, John Wesley Hillman, that prospector.

But he had been searching for the fabled Lost Cabin Mine, is what you were saying here. Did he ever find the Lost Cabin Mine, or or was this lost cabin mine just a figment of, or just a tall tale of the prospector's imaginations out there? Several answers, hard to say, probably not a myth. No one has discovered it yet, but this particular one was one to where a group had gone ahead and found gold and they put it into a cabin, a lost cabin that was deep in the woods.

What happened though was that all but one were murdered in during the the Indian settler wars and that one came out and told people that he knew approximately the location and so Hillman was one who was coming through you know looking for the lost cabin mine. Yeah, and it set off a scramble I would imagine imagine. A lot of people saying, hey, we're gonna go look for that. That makes sense. Well, you know, Bill, one of the real interesting things about our area is that in the 1850s, I know it's 175 years ago, there was gold in those hills and people that avoided California and were lucky could really find the fines. But again, it was the ones that were going ahead, as you and I have discussed, that were

supplying the prospectors that were the ones that really created the wealth and created towns before the railroad. Indeed. In fact, a lot of those names of the people who ended up supplying the miners, well, that's what ended up buying up and building a lot of our towns here in southern Oregon, as we have talked about before. It wasn't necessarily the gold miners, which the businesses that were built around the gold miners for sure. Well, you know, it's funny, even Peter Britt tried his hand and said, no, there are better ways of doing this. Ashland, same way with the people there at Ashland Mills.

It happened even in Jacksonville. It happened with the first county seats in Josephine County like Sailor's Diggings. And it really is a marvelous time because I still remember when I first came here all those decades ago, Bill, it was so exciting to start trying to hunt saying, you know, maybe I can find some gold. And then it came to, well, maybe I can find one of the ore machines. And then it came to, this is a beautiful country for a walk. Reality ended up intruding or intruding, right?

All right. Dr. Dennis Powers, R Meets Present. That is today's profile on Crater Lake and we just touched on it with the high points but we'll get some of that coming up. By the way, when did it first start being called Crater Lake because it was just known before as Mysterious Lake or Deep Blue Lake and things. Was there a time that it was officially named Crater Lake? Well when the name that came in on Crater Lake was just before it was named as a national park which was the early 1900s and so until then it was as

you point out Deep Blue Lake, mysterious lake, lake of mystery. And when people are there, one of the things they should really try to see is the Lady of the Woods, which is the sculpture there that we uncovered in a story with Larry Smith, actually some decades ago. And in any event, we're so lucky to have these things. And you know, of course, now, Bill, really quickly, is that we can say where it took 11 days for Peter Britt from Jacksonville to go there when he took the first picture of Crater Lake. You know, we can go ahead and it's, you know, drove to Crater Lake, had a great lunch, and back at 3 o'clock.

Pretty leisurely, and you can take a few selfies there at the rim. You know the part until I talk with you about this, though, I did not realize that Crater Lake, geologically, was as young as it is. Eight, nine thousand years ago, that's a blink in the planet's history. That's so little time really in the grand scheme of things. It is. And the mountain then was about ten to twelve thousand feet high. As a biggie. And the volcano blew off the top five thousand feet that collapsed in the lava that exploded out in an explosion that dwarfs the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption and the ash was over thousands of square

miles. I was wondering if I was wondering if you know how far it came if it came to our area because you know if you go up on 140 and you're over there by you know Mount McLaughlin you're going past Mount McLaughlin are all the lava flows and the lava rocks that you see down there that ended up coming down was that from you know Mount McLaughlin or is some of that possibly from Crater Lake you know thousands of years ago. Do you know? Mount McLaughlin is its own different animal, and in any event, the volcanic, we can really see that, you know, when we're coming in and flying in from being outside our state, and we fly in, let's say from San Francisco, and come over, and you can see the huge valley that we're in, let's say from San Francisco, and come over and you can see the huge valley that we're in,

which was part of all of this volcanic activity. So in other words, those rocks are part of Mount McLaughlin then, or were part or blown out during its eruptions back in the day? In terms of where it was, I don't equate McLaughlin with those tubes. All right. Well, all I'm saying is that... ...more likely from Crater Lake because of the relative closeness of the distance to Crater Lake. All right. All I'm just saying is that whenever those rocks were coming down, that must have been a hell of a day. Oh, oh, yeah. And we see it all over when we're ever going into places that are heading towards the coast.

I mean, this was a monumental explosion. Indeed. All right, I'll tell you what, I want to just grab a quick bite of the news here, and then let's dig into SOU's news. That's going to be a big deal. Big, big deal, okay? We'll have that coming up here, Dr. Powers. We're past meets present, on to the present here in just a moment. We'll cleanse the palate. Bill London

from the KMED News Center will join us in here too. We were talking a lot about gold and silver and various other things and the miners that would come out here. You don't have to get out your pick and shovel though. When you're looking to guarantee and protect some wealth, talk to the recognized experts, our friends at Jay Austin and company Gold and Silver Buyers. No 20 mule team needed. Just head down to 1632 Ashland Street in Ashland, 6th and G in downtown Grants Pass. And that's usually on Monday that they have the 6th and G store open up, but you can call for your appointment one way or the other, 482-3715. They know these markets and they'll help you whether you wish to buy or sell.

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Cancel. See t-mobile.com. This hour of The Bill Myers Show is sponsored by Fontana Roofing. For roofing gutters and sheet metal services, visit FontanaRoofingServices.com. From the KMED News Center, here's what's going on. Big cuts are coming for Southern Oregon University. President Rick Bailey announced cuts Friday responding to a structural deficit. The draft plan would cut $10 a half million dollars over the next three and a half years, reduce staff by 64 positions, and also cut the

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Hi, I'm Lisa with Kelly's Automotive Service and I'm on KMED. It's 836. Now we were talking about some history there with Dr. Powers. Now we're taking it to the present now and this has to do with Southern Oregon University. You know, Doc, the big story coming out last week here with SOU President Rick Bailey, this is where, of course, you spend a lot of your time. There is the professor, former professor of business law there and retired professor of business law.

What can you tell us about what has been going on and maybe what we have not heard about or understood adequately here as far as what's happening with SOU? Can you help us out? Oh, absolutely. Let's say for starters, what's striking is what has happened over 35 years. And the SOU has had financial problems that it's always worked around, but what's happened now is a direct result of Salem and the legislatures there, which is far left. For example, when you go into what is released on the numbers, what people wouldn't know

is that when they look at the state funding that is for operational expenses of SOU, it's about 20% now of the amount that is needed to cover their $70 million expenses. It used to be the other way around. It used to be about in the 1990s when we had less Democrat expelled with a K, representatives, it used to be we would have something around 70% of state aid that came in, and so the rest was tuition. That is fascinating. That's what people aren't saying. All right, now I want to say that back in the days, past legislators or legislators rather, would have three-fourths of the of the tuition was

paid for out of the state system, right? And so tuition was only one-fifth. Two-thirds to one-third, it would go a little bit, that's the way it was in the 90s. You're gonna find it gravitating up and down. But now you're looking at 20% when you don't look at what's going for retirement, which is PERS, or the medical. All right. So that's the first thing. So 20 percent, so I just want to be clear. Only 20 percent of the state's budget, the, I'm sorry, of the SOU budget is covered by state

contributions now, when it used to be about two-thirds. I think I'm going to need to give that specifically. 28 million in state funding, quote, more than half of which is allocated for retirement and medical benefits for employees, you take that 14 million and divide it by 70, and you get 20%. Now, it can, depending on what you're doing. But the important thing is that used to be two thirdsthirds, one-third, it's now one-third that the state has given, which is going to

homeless, it's going to other different places, it's going to, as Salem tries to imitate California. Plus the other fact, Bill, that is really annoying is we're not hearing one word from the representatives here in southern Oregon or in Ashland from the representatives into the state legislature. Not one word. Silent as the snows. Now as far as nominal money or the numbers, does the number of dollars going into SOU, has it been the same and it ends up just purchasing less than it did or are the raw numbers actually going down too?

Well, on that detail, you would think that it would be adjusted for inflation and when someone does analyze this basic important concept, they'll come up with the facts of some of these details. But the key thing other, a second concept my friend that's very important, is when they're talking about cutting the universities, this is what people are missing, cutting the universities 38 academic majors to 23. Well, well, well. Now, what are the ones that are being cut? It's the ones that people would want. It is...

Oh, really? Absolutely. Okay. Now, I was wondering if that was the case because I was wondering how much of what would be cut because I don't think that they were being, at least the stories that I've read so far, have not been particularly specific on which majors were going to go away. But I was wondering, you know, are you going to see environmental studies or various woke degrees go away? This is where news should be centering on the second concept. Okay. And what that is is that they are cutting as a major economics. I know the

professors there, they have degrees from Stanford, doctorates and things like this. They are good. But economics is going, chemistry is going, financial math is going, but there's not a word about LGBTQ. That's what I was wondering. Absolutely. That's what I mean. Where are the representatives? And news people should be asking, where are the representatives? There's a number of things that just need to be explored and to go into. Another thing is, is when you look at the detail of the cuts, There's a number of things that just need to be explored and to go into. Another thing is when you look at the detail of the cuts, this is a third important concept.

They're reducing, and I know this one because I know what the budgets were and things like this, the school of business, $150,000. Well, some years ago, 30 years ago, and this number, this specific, can vary, but the concept is totally 100% accurate. They had approximately 19 what they call FTEs. I don't want to go down a rabbit hole in FTEs. Yeah, FTEs are full-time equivalents. That's what they mean.

Okay, that's good enough. So in any event, they had 19 19 and now they're down to 12. So and what they were doing is not filling positions as they came up in retirement on past brush-throughs on this. And if you're going to take 150,000 out from the School of Business, that is going to be a sizable amount because these are the enrollment drivers. I would be having classes of up to 75, 80 students in LGBTQ, oh, I don't know, five, ten with the same FTE? No. Oh, so are you claiming then that Southern Oregon University is preserving its DEI kind of courses and actually getting rid of like economics and business courses that actually have function

and value within the culture? What I'm saying is that for those who are going into this, they should be asking the representatives and get the details. I'm going ahead and saying what I know because when you go through all these, just in terms of economics and just in terms of majors that are going down, that there is wholesale destruction being made of what are important majors that students would like. Now what happened though is that tuition goes up as the state cuts it down. This is a

fourth concept for news to get into and to look into. It's the fact that tuition went up, you know, versus because they had to make up for the deficit. But then what we get is a fifth thing, which is the fact that what this means is you don't have to follow the union, you can let full-time professors who have tenure go. And so when they're looking into this, they have to go ahead. The numbers are there. Okay, okay. Help me understand this, and hold up before we move forward, then. Full-time professors with tenure can be let go because of what now?

Oh, because the declaration of financial emergency. That is how, Bill, they can go ahead and cut entire majors. Now let's take a look at Native American Studies. In Native American Studies, it's a minor. I know the people there. They are very good, and that is certainly a part of our culture here. But when you take a look at it, they are still keeping that as a minor.

Now the actual numbers are going to have to be dove into by reporters, dove into by people looking into this to follow the concepts that I know are correct, and to look into, for example, the College of Natural and Social Sciences is budgeted to lose about $1.4 million, of which part of that is going to be this year, and the next part is going to be over another two to three years. Now there's going to be more changes coming in because what I've seen and what I've known in keeping up with even city councilors who are acquainted and very close to SOU, and I'm not a news reporter, I'm just a historian, the news reporters will go in there and they should find out what

are the specifics. But these are going to be changing because as they get into difficulties and who goes ahead on the staff, and I really feel for these professors because they've had minimal raises over years as Salem has kept the money to go to different places, homeless. And now, yeah, yeah, I get that. Yeah, we get that. Now, let me ask, in all seriousness now, is it different at a university like Southern Oregon University when contrasted with Ivy League? Okay, and when I say a difference, one of the challenges that I've heard is that most professors these days, at least in the big universities, really don't teach.

They'll do research papers and this and that and the other, and they have other people doing the teaching. Now, I may be wrong about that but is that the way Southern Oregon University is done where you publish or perish or do professors here actually teach the classes? Can you maybe put a clarity, a bit of clarity on that? Oh absolutely. I don't think between us with all due respect, I don't believe that the analogy is to Harvard which has a 50 billion reserve and SOU does not have a reserve. I understand. So let's my friend, let's look at Oregon State and Oregon University and when you go there and I actually turned

down a larger job outside of this area, so I really got an idea as to what is going on outside area, but in terms of the major ones, they will have in the allocation that goes to their institution, especially because they're right on the wavelength of the Salem institutional government, is the fact that they will hire adjuncts. They will have... Now adjuncts are the ones that aren't actually tenured professors, but those do most of the teaching in a lot of those places, don't they? It depends on the specific academic profession because most of them will have research assistants and or slash someone called an adjunct, which usually will be someone who has their full-time job outside in the community. And then'll come ahead and teach because they love teaching.

That's done throughout every institution in the United States from Harvard to SOU. But the problem is SOU does not have any reserves. SOU has already is not and has not been hiring adjuncts. And I'm not giving absolutes because there's going to be certain areas that hopefully reporters will dig into this, that they will find out there are different things in there that depend on the departments and that is going to be up to them. And they should start with talking to our representatives in Salem who have been very interestingly silent. Well, you know what we've noticed here, the standard phrase coming out of a lot of people

observing Salem is that they're running out of other people's money. And they want to spend, well, even look at wildfire, they don't want to pay for wildfire, which is a state function, you function, public safety function, and they want anybody who lives outside of a city paying for it instead, as just one example. These are good examples. Yeah. So is there anything that the president could have done to have forestalled this, or is this something which is bigger than Rick Bailey's pay?

Although he agreed to take a 20% pay cut, you know, to help out. Rick Bailey is the perfect person to have been hired. He has, and actually what's interesting is that SOU, when he was hired, What's interesting is that SOU, when he was hired, was having some form of financial issues. And this is nothing new, in other words, right? It's nothing new, but you see, it's hard, it's hard to make generalizations on this because it fluctuates. And the other thing, my friend, is that what Bailey has done, what Rick has done, has been incredible to deal with a recalcitrant Salem, that this is affecting every institution in

Oregon. This is not just an SOU problem, it's just the fact that I'm waiting to see what's going to happen with other ones. Because with the cuts that are being made nationally, Salem, and the big fingers should be wagging at them, has been trying to keep their far left goals, you know, homeless. And what we're seeing now in terms of men can play in women's sports. You know, we have a mini California here in Oregon. In other words, what we're dealing with at SOU is yet another larger symptom of

money and effort and political juice being applied to stuff that doesn't matter, is what I'm hearing. Absolutely. And you see, I'm waiting for the other universities and the smaller ones that are there with SOU. And so what's going to happen, because this is just August 4th. Yeah. Let me ask a final question here, Doc. What do you think then is what will be left at Southern Oregon University by the time we're finding out? Is it basically going to be only an arts school from this point forward or is business and maybe more left-brained kind of

stuff, is that all going to be gone or wiped out in your opinion? How do you see it playing? Good question. What's happening is that Rick Bailey has done a masterful job And I've been able to be close to that for a long time because if you look and you can go to Ashton News right now To go ahead and get how the plan is. So this is a plan what maybe 20 25% This is not a detail. This is like the concept This is a payment plan. Part will be taken care of now and then the rest over let's say two to three years. But if people go to Ashen.News and come down in terms of where all these cuts are, they're just saying that there's also, just to go through it, because there is the answer where the cuts are coming

from. There's a number of different ones that I've seen over the years, because I saw it with different places, because I used to be close to the provost and close to, I've been, this is not to say anything other than the fact I've been lucky. I've been able to stay in touch with every president that's been there since I got in there and had to make my way not knowing anyone here. But basically, in that, there's a lot of different places as to what they're pulling at. For example, they don't go ahead and hire for vacant positions.

They just let it go. Yeah, just attrition. Yeah, just through attrition. Yeah, makes sense. They also go ahead and cut ahead of time with individuals who have posted. This is a formalized process when you retire. You've got to send in formalized papers. And so 25% of the cuts represent individuals with an intent to retire. Now that, my friend, means it's got to be in, it could be next year or the year after. You have a third of the cuts representing positions that are being eliminated. Now what this means is that the people who are there teaching, and they are good with, you know, good enrollment, are really working

hard. And there's going to be some unsettlement as to different areas where they're not having to work as hard because they don't have as many students. That's just a reality. Yeah, ultimately. You know, what was kind of telling to me on how the economics of the university system are upside down when you said that the money that was coming into SOU from the state even right now, the state contribution, the state subsidy in there, half of it was going to PERS and retirement. That's terrifying. But you see, that's terrifying. You know, you're paying for the past people. You have nothing to do

with people being educated right now. That is the problem with what's going on now, because they're beating up on the smaller universities. And here is a very important thing. I think some of your listeners will probably remember underneath Steve Rino's who is a wonderful president that Steve Rino when he was president of this university was dealing with a financial problem then and One of the things that Salem then floated well, we'll just make this to be OU, the Ashland campus. Now, that, my friend, is where it's more likely to head, but I give so many kudos to the people

who are there because I know what they're dealing with. I have talked with a couple of them about that off the cuff, and what they're doing to keep SOU in any type of a position here in Ashland is masterful. But the politics from Salem is horrid. Yeah, well, I'm not surprised about that in the least, all right? Hey, doctor, I appreciate it, and we will talk next week again, where past meets present, but thanks for the insight. Are you going to be at the Ashland Community protest tomorrow? I'm just curious. You're laughing.

You know what's so funny? I'm laughing because, you know, when I look at these people who don't have to work for a job and they can on a weekend or a week just go ahead and bring out their placards, and they're usually old, white and aging. I just get a chuck when I drive by and I just will smother them. I know they're going to be protesting tomorrow because fees and salary increases for the Ashland staff but yet at the same time they're doing service cuts and fee hikes at the same time. So well once again even Ashland is running out of other people's money. Well, you know what's so darn funny about this? There's always a protest, my friend,

at the same place, just to the entrance of Lithia Park, every single Saturday, every single time during the week, are protesting and those of us who have lived here for all these decades just kind of left drug our shoulders and keep on going doesn't change anything all right okay what are you protesting what do you got okay it's kind of like rebel with a cause that old movie in the 50s okay hey doc thanks so much we'll talk next week all right you'd be well thanks again it's always my pleasure I appreciate your understanding dr. Dennis powers retired professor of business law where past meets present