Chancellor's Blog

After 10 months on the job, the day of my investiture finally arrived. And what a day it was! There was so much emotion and such amazing moments, I wanted to capture as much as possible — photos, tweets, memories, speeches, music — and what better way than via my blog.

To everyone who attended and to those who watched via the livestream — thank you! If you missed it, you can watch it here. I’ve even marked out some of my favorite moments:

• “Clarinet Marmalade”: 0:59
• Welcome to platform party: 5:30
• Introduction of special guests: 26:12
• “Just a Closer Walk with Thee”: 1:18:00
• Commissioner Boyce’s charge and my uniquely Ole Miss answer: 1:29:40
• Investiture Address: 1:32:30

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Today’s blog is a follow-up on the exciting UM Tech Summit we hosted on August 31. We were grateful to have U.S. Senator Roger Wicker highlight an effort to bring key technology leaders to campus to share perspectives from the computer, telecom, Internet, and cyber security industries. These leaders shared valuable insights about how universities — especially our university! — can transform educational paradigms to address the needs of today’s global workplace. Key to that transformation is the growing multidisciplinary field of data science, and at the Tech Summit we explored the opportunities the University of Mississippi has to be a national leader in the field.

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It’s a good summer to be an Ole Miss Rebel!  We have nine — count them nine! — members of the Ole Miss family across three sports in Rio de Janeiro. What a great milestone for our university, as this is the most Rebels ever at any single Olympic games. Some unique bragging rights and I couldn’t be more proud of our #RebsInRio as they get ready to compete on the world’s largest stage — and rep Rebel Nation — in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

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I can hardly believe it, but today marks six months on the job as chancellor of the University of Mississippi.  The first part of 2016 has been a whirlwind of getting to know the great people of this amazing university and the transformational role you all play in education, innovation, health care and community engagement.

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The past two weeks have been an amazing time of celebration and appreciation at the University of Mississippi — our largest-ever commencements both at Oxford and (soon to be) at UMMC and a weeklong celebration of our dedicated and hard-working staff members. I couldn’t think of a more perfect way to wrap up my first five months as your chancellor.

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