URI trustee nominee with controversial past pulls out of consideration. What we know.
A Democratic political donor and influential figure in the education world with a controversial past is no longer in the running to join the University of Rhode Island's Board of Trustees.
Michael Perik pulled his name from consideration one day before the Senate Education Committee was set to consider him along with other nominees.
In an email to Gov. Dan McKee's office on Monday, Perik said he is "dealing with a serious medical matter" involving a family member.
"Given that, I want to respectfully decline the nomination. I was honored to be considered," Perik said.
Perik has a long and controversial history in the education world
Perik – whose wife, Elizabeth Beretta-Perik, is seen as a possible 1st Congressional District candidate and was a finalist to be McKee's lieutenant governor in 2021 – has made news numerous times, not always favorably, for his work in the education world. A 2021 report from Americans for Fair Treatment, a nonprofit that believes workers should have the right to opt out of joining unions, detailed Perik's involvement in a program that offered free college tuition to union members and their families.
Ohio's Eastern Gateway Community College offered the benefit to in- and out-of-state students, drastically increasing its enrollment, and thus, its state subsidies, the report said. In Ohio, those funds are based on enrollment. The report said the program was run in part by two companies Perik led from Rhode Island: Higher Education Partners and Student Resource Center. Critics raised concerns over subsidies being taken away from other schools that might have needed them and may have been shortchanged in favor of attracting out-of-state students who wouldn't offer any return on taxpayer money, the nonprofit reported.
Perik also raised eyebrows years ago when he contributed to former U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Perik's companies received upwards of $6 million in federally funded contracts from the Iowa Association of School Boards, according to the Des Moines Register.
The Student Press Law Center, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit supporting press freedom, reported in 2011 that the Register was looking into the matter. Around that time, the Register was fighting to obtain emails between association staff, Harkin and Perik that might have advanced its reporting.
Like The Providence Journal, the Register is owned by Gannett. The Journal is now attempting to recover the Register's old reporting, which is not available online.
Perik as a possible URI trustee
McKee's press secretary, Olivia DaRocha, said House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi's office "provided a list of recommended candidates to the governor’s office for this specific board seat" and Perik was on the list.
"Earlier this week, the governor’s office was notified that Mr. Perik is unable to be a nominee for this position due to family medical issues that require his attention out of state," DaRocha added. "His name was withdrawn as a result."
House spokesman Larry Berman said the names of recommended candidates were provided to McKee around July of last year.
McKee's office did not answer questions about whether it had vetted Perik and was aware of his past, nor did it respond to requests for any information it gathered on Perik before nominating him to the URI board position.
Berman said Shekarchi said he was "somewhat aware" of the controversy in Ohio but thought it had been addressed, and that he was unaware of the matter in Iowa.
The Journal's calls to the Perik family on Tuesday went unanswered.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Michael Perik pulls out of consideration to be a URI trustee
