Local University of Mississippi Alumni were upset Dan Jones and members of the state College Board were unable to reach an agreement on a new contract, but agreed Jones will honor his current contract and serve his remaining six months as Ole Miss chancellor.

“I think Dan Jones is going to do what he says,” said Vicksburg resident and Ole Miss alum Lee Davis Thames. “He’s a man of his word. He has talked to a lot of them (trustees), and since they don’t offer him any support, he’s going to be a man of his word and leave the school for the reasons he gave.

“That, he thinks, is in the best interest not only of the school, but his staff, many of whom have given up opportunities to go to other places at hire pay in order to have the privilege of serving with Dan and representing the state of Mississippi and the flagship university.”

In a letter released Thursday through the University’s UM Today website, Jones said he had refused a proposal from the College Board extending his contract for 21 months if he agreed to retire in June 2017, adding his performance or effectiveness in office would have no impact whether he could continue to serve as chancellor after June 2017.

He said he and Dr. Jim Borsig, commissioner-elect for the board met individually with a number of board members about his situation.

“I hoped to determine if the board members would consider an extension that would allow me to serve as chancellor without the outcome of my leadership predetermined,” Jones wrote. “From these meetings it has become clear that the board is not willing to to do so.

“I feel strongly, as do most of my advisors, that serving two years as a lame duck would make it difficult to recruit and retain key leaders and continue our momentum in private giving. More importantly, it is clear from the board’s position that the board would not support my leadership during any extension,” he continued.

“For the university to thrive and succeed, the university needs a leader who has the support of its governing board, which I clearly do not enjoy. For these reasons, it is in the University’s best interest for me not to accept the board’s offer.”

State Sen. Briggs Hopson agreed, saying he expected Jones to honor the remainder of his contract.

“I’m sure they’ll (the board) follow their obligation to start searching for a new chancellor, and then I guess the chancellor going to continue with his duties.”

The College Board on March 19 voted not to renew Jones’ contract, which expires in September, ending his 6-year tenure as chancellor.

Board members claimed at the time policy violations occurred regarding spending and contract procurement at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. The members said the claims against Jones were outlined in an audit of the medical center commissioned by the board.

Board Vice President Alan Perry said the audit outlined violations by the medical center such as not getting board approval of contracts more than $250,000, not getting approval for leases more than $100,000, and failure to produce documents concerning contracts that the board and auditors challenged.

The news caught Jones, students and alumni by surprise, prompting calls from notable university graduates like Archie Manning and alum and former Ole Miss chancellor Robert Khayat for the board to reconsider its decision. Students and alumni later held rallied supporting Jones on the Ole Miss campus.

The rallies, objections by former students, the threat of contributors withholding contributions to the school and reported moves by some legislators to dissolve the College Board forced board members to consider offering the compromise agreement to Jones.

“I think there are two aspects that need to be commented upon,” Thames said. “First, the letter that chancellor Jones has written explaining his decision. It deserves widespread publication and widespread readership because it demonstrates the class that Dr. Jones has exhibited his entire time as chancellor and demonstrates why things had gone so well at Ole Miss under his leadership.

“When that is contrasted with the what I think to be unfair and certainly poorly executed and unjustified action of the board of trustees, it sets up a glaring difference between the parties.”

Saying he would respect Jones’ request in his letter to adhere to the Ole Miss creed, which requires civility, Thames commented on the board’s decision.

“I acknowledge that the board of trustees have certain responsibilities, I acknowledge that often times, those decisions are difficult for those gentlemen and ladies who serve, and I respect that,” he said.

“What I have trouble with is that relying upon the narrative statement by Mr. Perry given as the justification for the board’s action, I tend to agree with Mr. Jim Barksdale (former Netscape CEO) more than Mr. Perry that even if you accept the accuracy of Mr. Perry’s statements, those are no reasons to discharge a chief executive.”

Perry’s statements, “at least as insofar as the Board of Trustees has made public,” he said, are not supported by the facts.

“I think it’s regrettable that they are trying to micromanage instead of following their obligation to delegate to the University presidents at all institutions of higher learning, and I think it presents a serious danger for Mississippi State, Southern, Alcorn … all of our institutions, not just Ole Miss and the med school,” he said.

He said the board was created during former Gov. Theodore Bilbo’s time “to prevent this very sort of thing — political meddling at a level where the board of trustees doesn’t need to meddle and (needs to) stay out of that.”

Jones, who was the university’s 16th chancellor, succeeded Khayat in 2009, moving into that position from dean of the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

In 2009, he created controversy in the middle of the football season, when he ordered the Ole Miss band to shorten a traditional part of the song “From Dixie With Love,” which the band played every pregame, and the student section in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium would respond with “The South Shall Rise Again.”

In August, before the 2014 football season, Jones and other university officials announced Ole Miss would be removed from all school items except when it referred to the university’s athletic teams.

 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.