
After January, Jeffrey S. Vitter will no longer serve as chancellor of the University of Mississippi and will return to the faculty, according to the state college board.
Shane Hooper, president of the board, known officially as the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning, said Vitter, “made substantial contributions to the University of Mississippi during his three years as chancellor.”
“His leadership has moved the university forward in numerous ways and we are grateful for his service,” Hooper said in a news release.
The release touts several of Vitter’s accomplishments, including overseeing academic improvements, expanding the campus and expanded fundraising. An interim chancellor will be named soon, officials said.
Vitter’s future at the school has for months been an open question as speculation swirled that his contract would not be extended. He led a university where athletics and academics are often placed on equal footing by powerful donors and political allies.
On Jan. 1, 2016, his first day on the job, Vitter hoisted Ole Miss’s first Sugar Bowl trophy in half a century. The raucous fans that took over his hometown of New Orleans had more than a football game to celebrate: After consecutive years of enrollment growth, record-setting fundraising and increased academic prestige, they seemed assured that the good times would continue to roll.
Three years later, the university is losing students, minority enrollment is down, private donations are flagging, and the football program is gasping under stringent NCAA sanctions.
Vitter says he is proud of the work that happened during his tenure.
“Being the flagship university is not just a designation, it is a responsibility — to transform lives, communities, and the world. I am gratified that we have grown dramatically in impact, stature, and commitment in the past three years,” he said, in a release.
“We are stronger academically, enjoy more support in private giving and research funding, and engage more proactively with the world around us. In addition, we are a more diverse community with a more visible dedication to inclusion and civility.”
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
- Look for the "Republish This Story" button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS).
- Editorial cartoons and photo essays are not included under the Creative Commons license and therefore do not have the "Republish This Story" button option. To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.
- You have to credit Mississippi Today. We prefer “Author Name, Mississippi Today” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Mississippi Today” and include our website, mississippitoday.org.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You cannot republish our editorial cartoons, photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission (contact our managing editor Kayleigh Skinner for more information). To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.