Timothy Downs named president of Northern State University

Timothy M. Downs was named the 17th president of Northern State University by the South Dakota Board of Regents on Thursday.

Downs, 57, comes to Northern from Niagara University in Grand Island, N.Y., where he serves as provost and chief academic officer.

“I have highest and deepest respect for Northern, where the institution is; I only want to work with all of you to make it even better,” Downs said in his inaugural address.

Downs has spent his whole career in academia. His previous experience includes time spent as dean of humanities, business, and education at Pennsylvania’s Gannon University, dean of graduate studies and research at Emporia State University in Kansas and assistant vice president for academic affairs at California State University, Los Angeles.

“When Dr. (Mike) Rush (executive director of the Board of Regents) called, it really took all the wind right out of me,” Downs said. “I didn’t expect to hear the day that we finished interviewing that this was my time and I was they guy that they selected.”

One of the first things Downs said he would like to tackle is declining enrollment at Northern, an issue throughout the regental system and beyond.

“I have experiences at different institutions — a couple of private institutions that tend to do it a little bit differently — and we’ll see what might work here so we can attract more and more students to Northern,” Downs said.

And once students move to to Aberdeen for college, Downs said he hopes to keep them in town.

“Students shouldn’t have to go far to get a job,” he said. “If we can work together in partnerships to build new corporations and expand companies, then we can keep students here, which is a critical initiative.”

Downs has been in Aberdeen since the interviews on Monday and Tuesday, and was laying low Wednesday and Thursday before the announcement.

“Now that we’ve gone public ... I can go and eat dinner wherever I want and enjoy learning about the community,” he said.

Downs has lived all over the U.S., but this is his first foray into the Upper Midwest.

“The people that live here also have to coach me about the culture and the region and the norms,” Downs said. “It’s a real shared process.”

Improvements on campus — a remodeled Johnson Fine Arts Center, a new residence hall — were encouraging as he was considering Northern, Downs said.

Those are changes implemented under outgoing president James Smith.

“I think he understands the issues of a small campus, he’s on a campus that’s very similar in size. I think he’ll do a marvelous job,” said Smith, who announced in February that he will be taking the presidency post at Eastern Michigan University.

Smith’s last day will be June 20 or June 21, he said.

Smith has offered to pick up the phone and help Downs in this new role whenever he can, Downs said.

“That’s important and it makes life a lot easier. I’ll be happy to do that for him,” Smith said.

Downs first day will be June 27, but starting Thursday, he is transitioning between his roles at Niagara University and Northern, he said. The summer will be filled with packing and moving.

“I’ve done this before and I’m looking forward to it,” Downs said of moving.

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