Millsaps' Pearigen officially named vice chancellor at Sewanee

Ross Reily, Mississippi Clarion Ledger
·2 min read
Millsaps College President Dr. Robert Pearigen was Thursday named vice chancellor at The University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn.
Millsaps College President Dr. Robert Pearigen was Thursday named vice chancellor at The University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn.

Millsaps College President Dr. Robert Pearigen on Thursday was named vice chancellor at The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. Vice Chancellor position at Sewanee is the equivalent of university president.

Pearigen announced his resignation from Millsaps on Wednesday. He will officially step down as president, effective May 31, 2023.

The Board of Trustees at Sewanee elected Pearigen unanimously following a national search that began in March 2022. Pearigen, who previously served Sewanee in several executive and academic positions, including leading university relations from 2005-2010 before assuming the Millsaps’ presidency, will take office as vice-chancellor on July 1, 2023.

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“It has been my privilege and my joy to serve Millsaps as its president, and I shall be forever grateful for the opportunity lead, learn from and help advance an institution that is loved deeply,” Pearigen said in a statement Wednesday. “I am also thankful for the opportunity to teach at Millsaps and to engage with some of the finest students of this generation.”

In a statement from Sewanee on Thursday, Pearigen said, “It will be my great privilege and pleasure to serve the University that has played such a formative role in my life and career and that of my family. Though this is, in many ways, a homecoming of sorts, I am grateful to be returning to a place that has grown and evolved in vital ways over the past decade. I admire the progress Sewanee has made during the past 13 years and I look forward to helping lead its advancement in the years ahead."

Pearigen succeeds Reuben E. Brigety II, who stepped down as vice-chancellor and president in December 2021 to be nominated by President Joe Biden as U.S. ambassador to the Republic of South Africa, a role to which he was subsequently confirmed.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Millsaps loses president to University of the South