“Dr. Vitter, do you accept this charge?”
“Hell yeah. Damn right,” Chancellor Jeffrey Vitter responded, a smile on his face.
For the 17th time in the 168 years since the University of Mississippi was founded, a chancellor was inaugurated.
Vitter’s first day in the office was spent in New Orleans celebrating a Sugar Bowl win in red and blue confetti. In the year since moving to Oxford and taking on the chancellor position, Vitter has been tugged on by both the university’s past and future, trying to find a happy medium between the two. Through his Flagship Forum initiative, he has worked to hear ideas from the Ole Miss community on how to improve the university. Three hundred and fourteen days have passed.
Last night, Douglas Rouse, president of the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Education, placed the University Medallion around Vitter’s neck, officially inaugurating him as chancellor.
The ceremony opened with one of Vitter’s favorite songs, “Clarinet Marmalade.” The jazz music flowed into the crowd, giving a taste of his New Orleans hometown roots.
More than 1,000 seats in the Gertrude C. Ford Center were filled with federal, state and local government officials, delegates from more than 50 higher education institutions, elite alumni and current staff and students from the Ole Miss family.
Vitter sat onstage next to former Chancellor Robert Khayat, the predecessor to former Chancellor Dan Jones, who was not in attendance. His wife Sharon, and children Jillian, Scott and Audrey, and siblings sat on the front row.
The theme of the inauguration was “The Power of Higher Education to Transform Lives, Communities and World.”
“I am privileged to be your partner in building a vibrant Mississippi through higher education,” Vitter said.
He thanked the Ole Miss family for welcoming his family with open arms.
“Though they are too numerous to name, I would like to acknowledge the many mentors, collaborators and friends whose support has made it possible for me to stand before you today,” Vitter said. “I’m especially grateful to the IHL Board and to my siblings, family and friends, who not only encouraged Sharon and me to move to the South but to move to the best possible place in the South, right here at Ole Miss.”
Vitter said he was sorry his parents were not in the audience because they were the ones that instilled in him and his siblings the importance of higher education and the importance of using education to help people.
Tears filled Vitter’s eyes and he began choking up as he spoke about his parents and how proud he was of his family.
The crowed applauded, giving Vitter a chance to collect himself.
“And of all the things I say today, none will be more heartfelt than the statement that I would not be here today if it were not for Sharon,” he said.
He said for the past 34 years, Sharon has been his life partner, chief advisor and champion.
“Anyone who has met Sharon knows she was the real reason I was hired,” he joked. Speakers before Vitter also raved over Sharon and all she is doing to help the university and Vitter.
Next, Vitter moved to look to the future. He said higher education creates opportunity as well as ideas and innovations that drive economy and society forward.
“There is nothing more important to the future of our society than higher education,” Vitter said. “It is the great enabler that helps people lift themselves up above their circumstances and disadvantages.”
He said higher education is the most powerful tool there is to change the world.
“Success of this magnitude is a shared a shared legacy left to us by the thousands faculty, staff, students, alumni, government leaders and friends who have invested their time, talents and resources in this university.”
He said when he arrived on campus more than 300 days ago, the dialogue about greatness and the hallmarks of a flagship university.
“When I arrived at Ole Miss 314 days ago, not that I’m counting,” Vitter said. “We began a dialogue about greatness and the hallmarks of a flagship university.”
Vitter wants Ole Miss to go from great to greater and he continued that dialogue through his Flagship Forum, which were events across the campus and town he conducted during his first 100 days as chancellor.
He said this 10-month conversation can fuel imagination for a bright and exciting future.
“While great institutions share many things in common, none is more primary than the relentless drive to be ever greater,” he said.
Vitter said academic excellence is the foundation for everything else. Along with academic excellence, the university brags the highest rate of enrollment it has ever had, bigger and better programs, the best retention rate in the state and taking on the responsibility of addressing the state’s most pressing issues as Mississippi’s flagship university.
“Underneath our persona as a great public international research university beats the heart of who we are,” Vitter said. “At our core, Ole Miss is a family. It is in our DNA to enable every student, from the least prepared to the most prepared, to thrive and succeed.”
He said the power of higher education touches people everyday. He said without alumni who have invested themselves back into Ole Miss, the university would not be where it is and would not be able to dream of where it could be.
“We are standing atop a peak in our history, and from where we now stand, we can see that there are higher peaks,” Vitter said. “In becoming what we are, we have created greater capacity for what can be.”
He said the conversation must shift from what makes Ole Miss a great university to what it can do to become greater. Vitter said the roadmap to this focusing on the four themes that emerged during the Flagship Forum were: academic excellence, building healthy and vibrant communities, athletics excellence, and the enabler of them all, people, places and resources.
Expanding the international presence on campus and teaching students to prosper in a global society was another goal he set.
“No one person or discipline has the full breadth of knowledge capable of solving the world’s grand challenges,” Vitter said.
He announced the Flagship Constellation, which is an initiative that will be clusters of faculty, staff, students, alumni and partners to address challenges that will be better solved using a collaboration of multiple viewpoints and perspectives.
Joint degree programs will be established across disciplines and campuses, engage in strategic growth of graduate programs and create partnerships revolving around innovation and entrepreneurship.
“Imagine what we can do when we intersect the arts and sciences, the humanities and technology, to reveal the nexus of where true innovation lies,” he said.
Vitter continued to challenge the audience to “imagine what we can do.” He spoke about all of the possibilities of a greater and brighter future if the university invested in its students and continued working toward greatness together as a community.
“Sharon and I came here because of the people, because of all of you,” he said. “The audacious record of success that the University of Mississippi has achieved is because you imagined what could be and made it so.”
He said the greatest asset the university has is its people, including its talented staff, and announced the endowment of professorships and providing more opportunities for engaged scholarship and creative achievement. They will also work to support the development, retention and engagement of the staff.
“I believe that excellence and diversity go hand-in-hand,” he said. “Diversity makes us stronger as a community.”
He said the university will model and actualize the UM Creed, sustaining and welcoming atmosphere.
“We will serve as a guide to the nation in learning from our past and creating a vibrant, positive future,” he said.
The university’s endowment currently sits at $600 million, Vitter set the goal to more than $1 billion.
Vitter’s final point circled back to the them of “The Power of Higher Education to Transform Lives, Communities and World.”
“Ole Miss has transformed lives, including mine and, I know, many of yours,” he said. “Just imagine what more we can do.”
He said Ole Miss has a destiny as a flagship university to desire more, give more, be more and leave more behind.
“Just imagine what we will do,” he said. “Just imagine.”
-Lana Ferguson
