Chancellor Sonny Perdue announces retirement as head of Georgia’s university system

University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue, who previously served as Georgia’s governor, is retiring from his role as chief of the state’s public colleges. The university system announced the planned retirement Wednesday. Perdue will continue to serve until the Board of Regents chooses his successor in a nationwide search. A timeline for when that […]

University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue, who previously served as Georgia’s governor, is retiring from his role as chief of the state’s public colleges.

The university system announced the planned retirement Wednesday. Perdue will continue to serve until the Board of Regents chooses his successor in a nationwide search. A timeline for when that might happen was not announced Wednesday.

“As I prepare to retire, I’m grateful for our presidents, faculty and staff, our students and the many communities that make up this remarkable system,” Perdue said in a statement. “USG is a family, and I know it will continue to thrive, grow and serve Georgia.”

Perdue’s career includes serving in the state Senate as a Democrat before switching parties and becoming the first Republican governor in Georgia since Reconstruction in 2003. During the first Trump administration, Perdue served the nation’s farmers as the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.

After returning from Washington, Perdue took over as chancellor in 2022 after a search process in which an executive firm quit amid questions about potential political pressure from Gov. Brian Kemp’s office and whether the fix was in for Perdue.

Chancellors are selected by regents, who are appointed by governors for a seven-year term.

In a statement Wednesday, Kemp offered high praise for Perdue.

“Chancellor Perdue has given decades of service to our state and nation, and his time leading the University System of Georgia has solidified a legacy of impact that will continue for generations to come,” Kemp said.

The governor lauded increases in enrollment during Perdue’s tenure as well as the rollout of programs including Georgia Match, which seeks to match high school seniors with spots in colleges and the new needs-based Georgia DREAMS Scholarship.

Alpharetta Republican Rep. Chuck Martin, who chairs the House Higher Education Committee, said he initially questioned how a former governor and White House cabinet member would serve as chancellor.

“I was, as I think probably a number of people were, a bit skeptical when he took the position,” Martin said. “Because I didn’t know how it would work with a gentleman that had been the governor for eight years, had been a secretary in the cabinet of the United States, and then was going to come back and work as chancellor, working with rank and file legislators like myself.”

But Martin said Perdue ended up greatly impressing him, especially when it came to navigating difficult campus consolidations.

“He’s been very approachable, never been hard to reach, always been someone to talk to, never come in with a ‘my way or the highway’ type of attitude, it’s always been a collaborative one,” he said. “We’ll miss Senator-Governor-Secretary-Chancellor Perdue a great deal.”

Matthew Boedy, American Association of University Professors Georgia chapter president, called Perdue one of the system’s best cheerleaders and said he suspects Perdue enjoyed himself as chancellor more than he did in any of his previous jobs.

“I could tell that when I interacted with him,” Boedy said. “He had a smile on his face and he was very energetic about the future of the university system.”

Boedy said Perdue was a dedicated fiscal conservative who ran the system with a focus on financial efficiency.

That approach won praise from some, but not everyone, Boedy said.

“He wanted to keep budgets efficient and tidy,” he said. “He certainly was proud when the university system got more money from lawmakers, and I’m sure he played big roles in that. But a lot of times, that money did not necessarily go to faculty raises or expanding course offerings. It often went to other projects that are important, but not necessarily for what they say is the core function of the university system, which is education.”

Boedy also criticized Perdue’s participation in the Commission for Public Higher Education, an alternate higher accreditation agency formed by Georgia and five other Southern states. Critics have called the agency a tool to threaten colleges to remove ideas seen as “woke” by threatening their accreditation.

“I think the CPHE is more of a partisan move than anything the chancellor has done before this,” Boedy said.

“He moved us forward in many ways, but I also think that with the creation of the CPHE, that puts us in a direction that may not be good in the long term,” he added.

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