The Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning announced the addition of an online listening session in an attempt to gain as much input from the public as possible as part of the search for the University of Mississippi’s next chancellor.

The online survey asks for members of the University community to name what attributes the search committee should look for in potential candidates and to list challenges that the university is currently facing. The survey also asks what attributes of the University are appealing to potential candidates. It concludes by asking what some of the important questions the person completing the survey would ask candidates are, and why they would ask them.

The online session follows the same method as the listening session that took place at the University Medical Center in Jackson last month and the one scheduled on Sept. 5 at the Ole Miss campus. Faculty, staff, alumni and current students are given an allotment of time to speak with members of the search committee and the IHL Board of Trustees, giving their criteria for what attributes the next chancellor should possess.

The session at UMMC on June 19 skewed heavily toward the concerns the medical center has and their hopes of bridging the gap between their campus and Oxford’s with the next chancellor. The listening sessions in Oxford, which will be held in the ballroom at The Inn at Ole Miss, is scheduled to last from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with six different segments. Each group of the University community has its own session with faculty, staff and students having a joint session from 1 to 1:45 p.m.

The Campus Advisory Search committee met with its 39 members in Oxford for the first time on June 14 in what would be one of the only times all members would meet together during the process. During the meeting the timeline for the search was given with July marking the start of accepting nominations for potential candidates. Following September’s listening session in Oxford the members will be asked to provide a shortlist of eight candidates. Interview will then commence in October.

To view the online survey, visit here. It will remain open until Sept. 6.