Tad Perry

A STRONG COMMITMENT TO HIGHER EDUCATION

1943 • CATEGORY

EDUCATION • RESIDING

FORT PIERRE, SD • NOMINATED BY

JANELLE TOMAN Tad Perry grew up in a rural community in Missouri, close to the Missouri River. Years later, he returned to those Missouri River roots, this time in South Dakota, as he culminated a professional career in education by working, living, and retiring in the Pierre/ Fort Pierre area.

Perry graduated from Central Methodist University in Missouri and went on to receive graduate degrees in political science from the University of Missouri. He worked as a university faculty member and administrator at Indiana's Ball State University for 23 years. His 15 years as the executive director for the South Dakota Board of Regents capped a nearly 40-year career in higher education. As the Regents’ executive director, Perry was responsible for overseeing operations of the state’s six public universities and two special K-12 schools. When he retired from the South Dakota Board of Regents in 2009, his 15 years of service made him the longest serving state higher education executive officer in the nation. To this day, his service is the longest of any South Dakota executive director in the regents’ history.

Perry left his leadership role at a time when public universities in South Dakota were serving a record number of students, conducting record levels of research, and involved in record levels of fundraising that approached $500 million across the six universities. His tenure was marked by significant growth in service to non-traditional students, an increase in graduate degrees and research programs, enhancements in the technology environment for students, competitive salary improvements for faculty, consolidation of numerous back-office functions among the six universities, an upgrade in campus facilities, and the transition to Division I athletics.

He put South Dakota higher education in the national spotlight, with his service as chair of the State Higher Education Executive Officers and the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. He also was tapped for leadership roles by the National Association of Systems Heads, the Education Commission of the States, and the Midwestern Higher Education Compact. During his time as the regents’ executive director, he worked for 26 regents. On his watch, he also worked with 26 institutional executives, 17 of those he recruited and hired.

Perry guided the Board of Regents to be a unified system for public higher education. He crafted a process giving institutions a voice in decision making, with authority for presidents and superintendents to manage their institutions.

He mastered the use of informal gatherings to open lines of communication and build relationships. He hosted monthly ‘education coffees’ for leaders from K-12 education. In the late afternoons, it was the ‘Wine Cabinet’ with governor’s staff and cabinet agencies, talking agenda free and no holds barred. During his tenure, the Board of Regents initiated roundtables to dialogue with elected officials, community leaders, and higher education staff.

His length of service as a higher education executive officer was unprecedented. He acknowledges the importance of longevity in moving an agenda. “Organizations by their very nature are conservative,” Perry told a state task force. “Change is done incrementally. Being able to work with a board in a consistent approach for 15 years made it possible to make changes. You can move the ship a degree each year, and after several years, you will have changed the direction of the ship significantly.”

Evidence of Perry's impact on South Dakota higher education is found anywhere one turns on a university campus today. Many of his achievements are documented here. However, the South Dakota Opportunity Scholarship will serve as one of his highest visible and enduring legacies.

Since 2004, when the merit-based Opportunity Scholarship was first awarded, it is credited with keeping students in college in South Dakota, and their completion of degrees. Data show Opportunity Scholarship recipients are dramatically more likely to persist to degree completion, since they are better prepared for college, have taken rigorous academic subjects, and are required to make progress to ontime graduation.

In his post-professional life, Perry continued to focus on opportunities for youth. This included writing legislation for the Jump Start Scholarship while a state representative. His fund raising for the Boys & Girls Club of the Capital Area resulted in a new facility and a sizable endowment to support the after-school educational support program.