The South Dakota Board of Regents has named a new executive director. With Supreme Court decisions, letters from the governor, and ever-present student concerns, the change comes during an interesting moment for higher education in the state.
Nathan Lukkes assumed the role of executive director following the resignation of Brian Maher. Lukkes has been with the Regents since 2014.
He said the role of is a full-time job managing operations within the Regental system.
“The Regents are board members, and they meet five or six times a year typically, but they’re effectively a volunteer board – they’re not full-time employees," Lukkes said. "So, the Regents set the course or vision for the system, and the executive director and the system office are charged with the day-to-day implementation of the boards directive.”
Currently, Lukkes said the affordability and accessibility of higher education in the state are focuses for the board. Those are among Gov. Kristi Noem’s listed goals in a recent letter sent to the Regents.
Lukkes said there are aspects of the letter the board “wholeheartedly agree with.”
“I’ll look at the graduation rate as an example," Lukkes said. "We’re currently at 59 percent, and our goal was to hit 64 percent by 2027. And certainly, affordability remains top priority for the system. We were fortunate in the last three years to have been able to freeze tuition, which has really helped South Dakota gain ground on surrounding states.”
However, aspects of that letter are undeniably politicized – namely the request to remove all references to preferred pronouns in university materials and prohibiting on-campus drag shows.
In response, Lukkes said the Regents want to nip political polarization in the bud.
“In South Dakota, we really try to take a step back and focus in on what are we really talking about? How do we treat people with mutual respect? How do we teach students to engage with civility and realize it’s okay to disagree, and we can have productive conversation around issues without polarizing or digging in," Lukkes said. "If we can continue to reenforce and engrain that in our campuses and in our students, I think we’ll be fine, and we can weather whatever issue of the day might happen to be.”
Looking forward, Lukkes said getting students graduated and into the state’s workforce are among the board’s other priorities.