Ole Miss Chancellor Khayat’s Farewell Interview

Retiring UM Chancellor Robert Khayat speaks with MPB's Sandra Knispel

The walls have a new lick of paint, and his office is already cleared out. Retiring Chancellor Robert Khayat will officially leave the helm at the University of Mississippi on Tuesday, after 14 years on the job. MPB’s Sandra Knispel sat down with him for a final interview in Oxford.

Chancellor Khayat’s tenure was not without turmoil. There were the death threats, that authorities took seriously, when he tried to do away with certain Southern traditions...

“And there were thousands and thousands and thousands of letters and calls about the Confederate flag. It was such an emotional issue. Everybody had to get conditioned to the idea of change. But it worked out, and it benefitted us tremendously. On of the things I found interesting about it is – that it was really about the football games. It was about waving the Confederate flag at the football games.”

Asked about regrets, Khayat says: “I wish that as chancellor I would have been able to persuade the governor and the Mississippi legislature and the people of Mississippi that education should be our number one priority. And that’s pre-kindergarten through universities.”

But don’t expect to keep bumping into the man on campus who in the past frequently picked up trash early in the morning on his way to his office.

”I’m really going to try to stay off campus. I really think that a former chancellor needs to be as low profile as possible. If the new chancellor needs me he will call me.”

Dr. Khayat’s successor, Dr. Dan Jones, will move in on Wednesday and apart from an empty office he’ll also find a large pair of shoes to fill.