Retirement Party Honors Khayat

After an afternoon retirement party, Chancellor Robert Khayat played guitar with country music legend Marty Stuart at benefit concert for Thacker Mountain Radio.

Chancellor Robert Khayat’s time at the University of Mississippi is drawing to a close. MPB’s Cari Gervin has more.

As raindrops fell lightly on the Grove, hundreds of alumni, staff, faculty and even a few students lined up to tell Chancellor Khayat what his leadership has meant to them.

The retirement party had punch, cookies and country music blaring through the loudspeakers – just the low-key affair Khayat said he wanted.

“Once a person becomes part of Ole Miss, he or she is emotionally invested and attached. And so we a fuss a little bit among ourselves, but we mostly love each other. And we all love the school. And by love, I’m, I’m not using that term loosely. I mean, an affectionate, heartfelt, emotional attachment.”

While he’ll still be on the job through June, the search process for Khayat’s replacement is intensifying. Mike Mills is an alum who stopped by to shake the chancellor’s hand one last time.

He said the next leader of the school needs to:

“Have to have absolute character, I think he’ll have to have significant fundraising abilities, and I hope that we concentrate on the professors and the people who teach and continue to move forward to being one of the top-notch public universities in the nation.”

Under Khayat’s 14-year tenure, Ole Miss has risen in the college rankings, started the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation and hosted a presidential debate last fall. For MPB News, I’m Cari Gervin in Oxford.