URBANA -- A long search at the University of Illinois' Champaign-Urbana campus is over.
The university hired Robert J. Jones as their next chancellor, the school confirmed Tuesday. Jones was previously president of the University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY). The hiring is pending formal approval by the Board of Trustees at its July 21 meeting
His first official day on the job would be October 3.
In a statement, University of Illinois President Timothy L. Killeen said Jones brings "a significant body of relevant life and academic leadership experience to the chancellorship."
"I have the land-grant mission in my blood. I am a product of it. It is what brought me into higher education, from a sharecropping family in Georgia," Jones said in that statement.
Former chancellor Phyllis Wise stepped down in August amid an email controversy.
Jones would be the first African-American scholar appointed as Urbana chancellor since the office was created in 1967.
