Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Jack Warner, the state commissioner of higher education since 2002, is leaving to take a similar job in South Dakota, where he will be the executive director of the state's board of regents
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On Friday, Warner said that the South Dakota offer was too good to pass up, adding that the regents recruited him. Warner will be paid $323,000 a year, more than double his base salary of $135,000 in Rhode Island. But he said that the salary alone wasn't enough to entice him to leave the Ocean State.

"I wouldn't go to a system unless the conditions were right," Warner said in a phone call from South Dakota on Friday. "I'm used to working with an excellent board and a supportive governor in Rhode Island. Those conditions also exist in South Dakota. "

On Friday, the South Dakota Board of Regents unanimously voted to select Warner, 63, as its executive director, effective July 8. He replaces Tad Perry, who is retiring after 15 years at the helm of South Dakota's university system and who is currently the nation's longest-serving higher education director.

Perry, in a published report, called Warner "the best state higher education officer in the country."

Although South Dakota's higher education system has six universities and two special schools, one for the deaf and one for the visually impaired, it is similar in size to Rhode Island's system, which serves approximately 40,000 students.

Warner said that the challenges facing South Dakota's higher education institutions are not that different from those facing public colleges in Rhode Island: keeping the system affordable, making sure that enrollments continue to grow and increasing the number of college graduates. South Dakota has been expanding research at its six universities and Warner promised to press for more private and federal grants to continue that effort.

 Tags  education Rhode Island

Comments

Louis said:

Even the commissioner is getting out of town, just like all the graduates!

Link | May 1, 2009 4:45 PM
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Richard said:

his is another example of how Rhode Island and its legislators think in such small terms.

Just imagine South Dakota, a state with a population smaller that RI's and located in the hinterlands, supports six public institutions while RI has only three and complains about the need to consolidate even those few. SD pays its higher education chief almost THREE times what RI pays its chief and the legislators want to do away with the position to save money. What does RI know that South Dakota is in the dark about? Given the poor economy of RI versus SD, it seems RI is the one in the dark.

Education is an important element of the economy of any state and higher education is the most important part given its ability for job and business creation. How does RI support k-12 education to the extent that it is in the top 10 states, but its support of higher education puts it at the bottom of all states?
Makes no sense whatsoever.

Link | May 1, 2009 5:20 PM
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