The North Dakota State Board of Higher Education extended North Dakota State President Dean Bresciani’s contract Wednesday, leaving him as NDSU’s president until at least June 2018 assuming no prior resignation.

Following the 7-1 vote of approval of Bresciani, the man himself released a listserv email to the NDSU community detailing his thoughts regarding his extension.

“Before we put this behind us, I want to thank all of the supporters who spoke up on behalf of NDSU and its contributions to the state of North Dakota. I have never witnessed such an outpouring of support as NDSU students, faculty, staff, alumni and area business leaders and colleagues expressed these past months,” Bresciani said.

He added, “I am humbled and deeply appreciative of the support also extended to me personally, and am writing today to express a heartfelt thank you.”

Sadie Rudolph, NDSU media relations coordinator, also said Bresciani looks forward to continuing to work with the people of NDSU in service to the citizens of the state.

NDSU’s student government also released a statement congratulating the SBHE on its ruling.

“The State Board’s decision furthermore strengthens our continual efforts to work more cohesively with campus administration and with the North Dakota University System to best serve the students of North Dakota State University,” student government’s statement said.

Nick Evans, an NDSU student who sat on the board during its ruling, said the process was “a good meeting” and had “really good discussion,” though he was restricted on what he could say due to the closed-door policies of the SBHE meeting.

Evans referred to the board’s spokeswoman, Kathleen Neset, who said the topic was serious and substantial but the board handled it well.

Nick Reitan, student government’s executive commissioner for public relations, said, “We are glad that we were lucky enough to have an NDSU student play such a critical role.” He said he couldn’t comment further due to the closed-door restrictions.