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<\/p>\nOXFORD, Miss. – Challenging all faculty, staff and students to become active in the community, Dr. Daniel W. Jones used his investiture today as chancellor of the University of Mississippi to call for a strong focus on service.<\/p>\n
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“Education is the answer to our greatest needs,” Jones said in his inaugural address. “And those of us privileged to be a part of a university community have an opportunity and most importantly a responsibility to make a difference – to transform lives – beginning with ourselves and with individual students.”<\/p>\n
More than 1,200 state officials, invited guests and members of the university community gathered at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts for the 10 a.m. ceremony. The audience included representatives from more than 60 colleges, universities and societies of higher learning.<\/p>\n
Hank Bounds, state commissioner of higher education, administered the oath of office.<\/p>\n
“I charge you to use your stewardship of this institution to create an ever-higher level of excellence,” Bounds said. “I charge you to maintain and defend at this institution a climate that encourages the search for truth, passion for justice and an expansion of the limits of knowledge.”<\/p>\n
Compared to the lavish ceremonies and formal revelry that often accompany the inauguration of university presidents, this event – at Jones’ request – was low-key and frugal, Provost Morris Stocks said. For example, Jones delivered his own inaugural address rather than inviting a celebrity keynote speaker.<\/p>\n
The chancellor and his family began the day with a private prayer service at the university’s Paris-Yates Chapel. Featuring Christian, Jewish and Muslim prayers, the service was designed to help set the tone for the day, Jones said.<\/p>\n
After the investiture ceremony, he and his wife, Lydia, hosted a luncheon for special friends and university supporters at The Inn at Ole Miss. Later, Jones presided over the initiation for new members of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s most prestigious liberal arts honor society, in the Johnson Commons Ballroom.<\/p>\n
Formerly vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine at the UM Medical Center, Jones was named chancellor by the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning last June 15. He took office July 1, following the retirement of Chancellor Robert Khayat.<\/p>\n
During the ceremony, Ken Sufka, chair of the Faculty Senate, presented Jones with the university’s ceremonial mace; Charles Clark, president of the Ole Miss Alumni Association, presented the university crest; and Johnette Taylor-Jenkins, president of the Staff Council, presented the university key. Dr. James Keeton, vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, gave Jones a watercolor print by Clinton artist Wyatt Waters titled “Just What the Doctor Ordered.” On behalf of the students, Associated Student Body President Artair Rogers presented Jones with a plaque of the Ole Miss Creed.<\/p>\n
The university has enjoyed a long period of growth in enrollment, academic reputation and research prestige, Jones said. But the university is the flagship liberal arts university for the nation’s poorest state, he said.<\/p>\n
“As we continue our progress as a university, I call on this university community to be more keenly aware of the gap between our achievement as a university and the stark needs in the world around us,” he said. “We must seek opportunities to fulfill our responsibility to transform not just individual lives, but to transform the world around us through our service.”<\/p>\n
To accomplish this goal, Jones urged all members of the university community to “be purposeful about the spirit of service.” Students, faculty and staff members have contributed hundreds of hours to service projects this spring as part of the new campuswide “ServiceDNA” campaign, he said.<\/p>\n
“But as long as there are large needs in our community, we must consider doing more. I ask our faculty to be purposeful about how we can improve the economic status of our state, the health of our citizens and the role we need to play in improving educational opportunities for all.”<\/p>\n
The university’s new Ole Miss Opportunity program, a needs-based scholarship program, is an example of this commitment in action, Jones said.<\/p>\n
The university also must provide leadership for service across the state, he said, noting the programs of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation as an example. The Winter Institute hosted a symposium this week on reconciliation in areas of conflict across racial, religious and political lines.<\/p>\n
“I am so pleased that our university is offering leadership in reconciliation,” Jones said. “We do so, not in the spirit that we have accomplished anything in the area of reconciliation, but in the spirit of inviting others to join us in our pilgrimage along the pathway of reconciliation.”<\/p>\n
Jones concluded by referencing UM alumnus Jim Barksdale’s challenge at the university’s 2001 commencement to “keep the main thing the main thing.” For Ole Miss, the main thing is exceptional faculty and students, Jones said, announcing a goal of increasing the faculty endowment by $100 million.<\/p>\n
“Many of our fine faculty are here because of their love for this university,” he said. “But with a growing gap in faculty compensation between us and peer universities, recruitment and retention of the best faculty is an increasing challenge. Both for fairness and for strategic positioning, we must find a pathway for better faculty compensation if our academic programs are going to progress.”<\/p>\n
For a complete text of Jones’ inauguration address, go to http:\/\/www.olemiss.edu\/depts\/ \u00a0<\/span> <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n Inaugural Speech of Dr. Daniel W. Jones<\/a> from UM Media Documentary Projects<\/a> on Vimeo<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" OXFORD, Miss. – Challenging all faculty, staff and students to become active in the community, Dr. Daniel W. Jones used his investiture today as chancellor of the University of Mississippi to call for a strong focus on service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[222],"tags":[354],"yoast_head":"\n