College Board could name new Ole Miss chancellor Thursday

Published 11:30 am Thursday, October 29, 2015

Jeffrey S. Vitter, selected by the state college board as the preferred candidate for Chancellor of the University of Mississippi, speaks with medical students at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2015, in Jackson, Miss. Vitter is meeting with students, staff and faculty of both the medical school in Jackson and at the main campus in Oxford over the next two days prior to a board vote for the job. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — The University of Mississippi is likely to have a new leader by the end of Thursday.

Jeffrey Vitter, now provost of the University of Kansas, is meeting on the Oxford campus with faculty, staff, students and alumni. He met Wednesday with campus groups at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.

College Board trustees named Vitter their preferred candidate to take over the 24,000-student university last week. They ended their search early, deciding Vitter was the clear-cut leader. The board moved to bring him to Ole Miss while he was a finalist to lead the Fayetteville campus of the University of Arkansas.

Vitter, a computer scientist and brother of Louisiana Republican senator David Vitter, would replace former Chancellor Dan Jones. Trustees declined to renew Jones’ contract this spring.

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