Jewett Departs Board as Longest-Serving Regent

Congratulations to Class of '66 classmate Harvey Jewett for his passionate and long lasting contribution to higher education for students of South Dakota! Read below the posting put forward by the South Dakota Board of Regents giving tribute to Harvey's service. Of note, Harvey Jewett is believed to be the longest-serving regent in the board's history, being appointed by three governors to successive terms to the South Dakota Board of Regents.

Harvey C. Jewett, IV of Aberdeen completes his work this week on the state’s public higher education governing board after more than 20 years of service. Based on available records, Jewett is believed to be the longest-serving regent in South Dakota Board of Regents’ history.
 

Harvey Jewett

“It has been a wonderful and humbling privilege to serve on the Board of Regents,” Jewett said. “The individual regents, staff, presidents, administrators, faculty, and students have been a special part of my life. I will miss them all.” Jewett began his service in January 1997, appointed by then-Gov. Bill Janklow. He became the board’s vice president in 1998, then was elected president in 1999 and was re-elected annually to that post until 2009, serving an unprecedented 10 years as the regents’ president. Three South Dakota governors—Janklow, Rounds, and Daugaard—have appointed Jewett to successive terms serving on the Board of Regents. “I am grateful to governors Janklow, Rounds, and Daugaard for entrusting me with this position,” Jewett said.

“We owe Harvey Jewett a tremendous debt of gratitude for his leadership to promote strong academic standards and innovative approaches to resource allocation and performance assessment,” said Regents President Bob Sutton. During Jewett’s tenure as president, the regents undertook major initiatives such as the Salary Competitiveness Program, which provided differential salaries to faculty and staff based on performance and moved South Dakota salaries much closer to the regional market. The South Dakota Opportunity Scholarship program began, as did a major investment in new and renovated science facility and laboratory projects. Another hallmark was a strategic focus on research initiatives within the public university system, among those, strong linkages with the Sanford Underground Research Facility at Homestake.

In Jewett’s time on the board, more than 105,000 degrees have been awarded to graduates across the Board of Regents’ system. Also during that time, nearly $1.2 billion has been invested in academic, revenue, and campus infrastructure projects, of which only $48 million was funded by the state of South Dakota. The regents and Northern State University honored Jewett’s service at a reception at the Johnson Fine Arts Center on the NSU campus. Jewett, who holds undergraduate and law degrees from the University of South Dakota, is president and chief operating officer of The Rivett Group LLC and a partner in the law firm of Siegel, Barnett, and Schutz.