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Dan Gunderson and The Associated Press
Grand Forks, N.D.

Former MN Republican congressman tapped as new president at UND

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Mark Kennedy
Mark Kennedy in 2006, when he was a Republican congressman.
Tim Pugmire | MPR News 2006

Updated: 4:11 p.m. | Posted: 2:29 p.m.

A former Republican congressman from Minnesota has been tapped as the new president of the University of North Dakota.

The state Board of Higher Education voted Tuesday to offer the job to Mark Kennedy, the director of the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Kennedy was in Congress from 2001 through 2007. He also has been an adviser on trade policy and negotiations to President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama.

Kennedy told the board he and his wife have deep roots in North Dakota.

"We consider coming to UND to be coming home. We love this region," he said. "We love the Midwest values, the wide open prairies, the Badlands and the nearby lakes."

Declining oil revenue is forcing North Dakota to trim budgets, and Kennedy will start his new job needing to cut $9.5 million from the university budget.

Kennedy earned his undergraduate degree from St. John's University in Minnesota in 1978 and his master's in business administration from the University of Michigan in 1983. He doesn't have a doctorate.

Other finalists were Minot State University President Steven Shirley and Nagi Naganathan, engineering dean at the University of Toledo. Former UND president Robert Kelley retired in January.

Kennedy told the higher education board he will focus on building relationships and collaboration at the Grand Forks campus.

"You will be sick and tired of seeing me around the campus," he said, "because I will be spending very little time in my office. And I will not just be around the campus, I will be around the state. I love coffee shops."