The South Dakota Board of Regents had a very different view of Black Hills State University President Dr. Laurie Nichols when she was hired at Black Hills State University than the Wyoming Board of Regents did when they decided not to renew her contract in 2019.

Public records that were released months after Nichols' contract was allowed to expire at the University of Wyoming show she was investigated quietly by the Wyoming Regents. Records indicate – and Nichols confirms – that she was not part of the investigation and wasn't allowed to respond to the two complaints that led to the end of her employment there.

"I was blindsided," Nichols said this week. "It was a shock. That makes it hard to accept and come to terms with."

Now, the South Dakota Board of Regents has sent a letter to Nichols that was shared with the Journal by a member of the search committee that recommended her for the BHSU position.

The South Dakota Regents not only confirmed its confidence in hiring Nichols, they said it grew after speaking with her directly on the issue.

"A unanimous South Dakota Board of Regents would like to express its absolute confidence in and support of you," Kevin Schieffer, the president of the Board of Regents, wrote in the letter. "After reviewing it independently and walking through it with you, our confidence in your judgment and abilities is higher than ever."

Nichols said the Regents' vote of confidence in her as a person and university president was important to her.

"It meant the world to me," she said. "It was great when they offered me the job at BH as an interim. Then they made it permanent. This letter means more to me than you would could ever know."

According to documents uncovered after legal action taken by the Casper Star-Tribune and WyoFile – which the state of Wyoming spent more than $42,000 in a failed attempt to keep secret – a UW Foundation employee and a university food service employee filed complaints against Nichols with the human resources department.

While the Wyoming Board completed its investigation without contacting Nichols before deciding not to renew her contract, the South Dakota Regents were unconvinced by the two complaints.

"It is obvious that the information about the two employee complaints is incomplete, and it is hard to imagine how it could be complete since you were never asked or given the opportunity to comment or present witnesses who were present," Schieffer said in the letter. "Based on our review of this case and our collective experience with observing you in South Dakota for over two decades, we know you acted in these instances as we would hope you would in any South Dakota case."

Shieffer went on to further praise Nichols for how she has handled herself as the records regarding her departure from the University of Wyoming have been released.

"We understand the difficult situation that the inability to access records and now the inability to respond publicly has put you in," he said in the letter. "It confirms the Board's high regards for your grace, professionalism and integrity."

Nichols is ready to move past the UW controversy and work on stopping the enrollment decline at BHSU and begin reaching more students at the university in Spearfish.

With about 3,900 students now, Nichols said she would love to see that number climb to 4,300. She is attacking the problem in several ways.

"We are reorganizing some of our staff here to focus on enrollment," she said. "We are working with kids in high school who are deciding where to attend college and we are also working to retain the students on campus now."

She said many of their programs will focus on working with employers and tailoring majors at the university to meet the needs of employers in the area.

"Students today are much more career focused than they were in the past," Nichols said. "The more we can do to help create educated graduates that meet the needs of local employers, the more likely students are to stay here when they graduate and put their education to work."

Nichols said growth for the university won't be confined to Spearfish. She said the Rapid City campus will be a focal point as well.

"Big changes are coming to our campus in Rapid City," she said. "Especially in the field of health care. We will expand our programs, but we will also be able to work with sister institutions to offer degree programs. We might not offer the entire degree, but we can feed students into a program that will benefit them and local employers."