The meeting to announce the next chancellor was postponed amid protests at The Inn at Ole Miss. Just after University Police Department Chief Ray Hawkins announced that the meeting would be postponed, the Institutions of Higher Learning released a statement saying that former IHL commissioner Glenn Boyce would be the next chancellor. A conference call about the matter is expected later today.
Boyce was an early consultant in the search for University of Mississippi chancellor and did not submit a formal application to be reviewed by the campus search committee.
About 150 people protested the IHL Board’s decision to name Boyce as the next chancellor. Counterprotesters also loudly voiced their opinions before the meeting began.
Cam Calisch, a student who was one of the anti-IHL protest organizers, was forcibly removed from meeting by UPD Chief Hawkins. She was demanding protestors outside of the room be let in.
The doors were closed because the room’s capacity had been reached, according to the fire marshal’s codes.
“I was telling them that they deserved to be let in, the people that were outside,” Calisch said. “That they were a part of the constituency and that they had a right to be let in.”
There were no charges pressed against Calisch.
Hawkins did not respond to questions about how the decision to postpone the meeting was made, saying all inquiries should be directed to the University of Mississippi Public Relations department.
This is a developing story.