The University of Mississippi may have a new Chancellor by the end of the calendar year. The state College Board has finalized the two committees that will make the selection.
During its monthly work session in Jackson, yesterday, the board announced all 12 of its members will take part in the search for the schools new leader with help from 34 individuals from Oxford, who will make up the Campus Search Advisory Committee.
The board will also pay the firm R-William Funk and Associates roughly $110 thousand to lead the search.
College Board President Alan Perry says there is a lot of work to do.
"We'll start some listening sessions," says Perry. "We'll get that done sometime during the summer. At the same time the consultant will be placing the advertisement, finding the candidates. Hopefully we will have all of our applications a resumes in by the end of the summer and begin the process of working through them."
The need for a new Chancellor arose when the board did not renew the contract of the school's current leader, Dan Jones, earlier this year. The board cited problems with how Jones handled some financial matters at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
Commissioner of Higher Learning Glenn Boyce says the new Chancellor will have to be someone who can bring the school together.
"These positions, these presidencies, are very, very challenging positions," Boyce says. "You have to be able to talk to all types of levels of experience and you have to be able to talk different types of activities going on, and everybody has so many different demands on you. Communication is going to be critical as far as we're concerned."
Higher learning officials say they would like to hold the first listening tour by the second week of July.
