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For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, April 2, 2003
DSU President Tunheim Plans
Retirement
MADISON – Jerald Tunheim,
president of Dakota State University since 1987, will retire
from the South Dakota public higher education system at the
end of the year, Board of Regents President Harvey C. Jewett
said. The announcement was made Wednesday on the Madison
campus to faculty, staff, students, and community leaders.
“Under Jerry Tunheim’s guidance, Dakota State University found
its market niche in higher education,” Jewett said. “Dakota
State has evolved into a unique regional institution. Its
advanced computer resources and academic programs are designed
specifically to meet the needs of business, education, and the
health care industry.”
Tunheim came on board within a few years after the Legislature
in 1984 changed DSU’s mission to focus on computer and
information systems technology, so much of the credit for the
university’s successful transformation can be traced to his
leadership, Jewett said. “President Tunheim has focused on
building a faculty base with diverse backgrounds and
experiences,” he said. “Faculty and staff are encouraged to be
innovative as they develop and deliver curriculum to students
in a variety of settings.”
“I
am most proud of the culture we have developed at Dakota State
University that embraces new technology and applies it in
everything that we do as a higher education institution,”
Tunheim said.
During his tenure as Dakota State’s president, the university
has seen a 236 percent increase in enrollment, to a total of
2,263 students last fall. The number of declared computer
majors on campus also has grown from 109 to 973 students.
Computer-related majors now account for about one-half of
Dakota State’s degree-seeking students, a rate approximated
nationally only by the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Except for two years in the late 1980s when he was dean of the
School of Mathematical Sciences and Technology at Eastern
Washington University, Tunheim has spent his higher education
career in South Dakota, beginning as an undergraduate student
at South Dakota State University in 1958. He holds a
bachelor’s degree in engineering physics and a M.S. in
physics, both from SDSU. After receiving his doctorate in
physics at Oklahoma State, he returned to SDSU to teach
physics and ended his tenure there 17 years later as professor
and head of the physics department.
Jewett said Tunheim would remain as Dakota State’s president
at least through the end of this year, and possibly through
June 2004, depending on how quickly a search for his successor
is completed. The Board of Regents will announce soon a
presidential search process and timeline, Jewett said.
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