College Board To Vote On Ole Miss Chancellor Pick Today

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.