OXFORD, Miss. ― For the first time in a generation, the University of Mississippi will be led by a chancellor who didn’t ascend from within.
Nine days after saying he was their top pick, Mississippi’s College Board voted unanimously Thursday to hire Jeffrey Vitter, now provost at the University of Kansas.
“Together, we will build upon the University of Mississippi’s position as a great American public research university, always moving forward to meet the needs of our state both now and on into the future,” Vitter said in remarks after the vote.
It’s the summit of a long climb through academia for the 59-year-old Vitter, a computer scientist and brother of Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana. He’ll get a four-year contract, but Higher Education Commissioner Glenn Boyce said the details are still being hammered out and will be released next week.
Vitter told campus groups Thursday that he will focus on five areas: increasing academic excellence, building international ties, expanding research, raising more money and improving diversity. He hopes to start as early as Jan. 1 and says he will spend time on campus before year’s end.
Vitter replaces former Chancellor Dan Jones, who was forced out in the spring amid wide protest when trustees refused to renew his contract. Jones had been chancellor since 2009, rising from the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. He succeeded Robert Khayat, who became chancellor in 1995 after serving as a law professor in Oxford. Over their long tenures, Khayat and Jones pushed both the Oxford campus and UMMC through historic growth, while shedding many Old South symbols.
“I think an outsider may have a different perspective than we’ve had before,” said Camille Walker, a senior public policy major from Tupelo. “I would really like to see him emphasize the family aspect of Ole Miss rather than the business aspect.”
