The Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees will meet this week to discuss candidates for the next chancellor of the University of Mississippi.
The board will meet Wednesday and Thursday morning at the University of Mississippi Medical School in Jackson.
The board selected 39 members for the UM Chancellor Search Advisory Committee, which held listening sessions throughout the state and reviewed all of the applications for chancellor.
After the deadline to submit applications passed, each member of the search committee ranked their top eight candidates. Their selections were delivered to Buffkin Baker, a search firm contracted by the university to facilitate the process.
According to two sources close to the process, the search committee’s rankings are only suggestions of preference. The Board of Trustees took the names of all who applied and selected 8-10 candidates to conduct preliminary interviews with before narrowing down to three candidates.
If the board ultimately does not select one of the candidates who applied, they reserve the right to offer the position to someone who did not apply, such as an individual who currently holds an administrative office at another university.
Robert Robbins, the current president at the University of Arizona, did not apply for the position according to a member of the search committee, though his name has been associated with the chancellor vacancy since Jeffrey Vitter stepped down in November of 2018. Robbins is a Laurel native and graduated from UMMC in 1983.
A new chancellor is expected to be announced by January 2020.
