New Miss. College Board President

Scott Ross has become the new president of the State College Board in Mississippi. Outgoing President Amy Whitten passed the gavel on to Ross Thursday. The board presented Whitten with several gifts, including a wooden plaque with a gavel, marking the end of a sometimes turbulent period for the board. Whitten often served as spokeswoman for the board following a landscaping controversy that led to the resignations of former Higher Education Commissioner Tom Meredith and then-interim Mississippi State President Vance Watson. Until the release of a state auditor’s report, which showed that Watson had authorized the use of MSU resources for landscaping at Meredith’s private residence, Whitten served as a temporary commissioner while Meredith was on leave.