It's pretty much a foregone conclusion what the outcome will be of today's visit by Dr. Dan Jones to the University of Mississippi's main campus in Oxford.

At the end of the day, barring a completely unexpected turn of events, Jones - vice chancellor of health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine in Jackson - will officially be the successor to Robert Khayat as Ole Miss chancellor. He was announced earlier this month as the IHL board's "preferred candidate."

Jones begins a long day of interviews with university groups at 8 a.m. at The Inn at Ole Miss. They will be webcast live through www.olemiss.edu. A 45-minute session open to alumni, community leaders and the general public begins at 2 p.m. At 4 p.m. the IHL board will meet to determine whether Jones passes muster.

Jones is a familiar figure to the Ole Miss community, a known quantity with strong ties to the university. Unlike Khayat when he became chancellor, Jones has not worked on the Oxford campus, but he knows the university and the state as well as any prospective candidate could.

The Ole Miss connection will make university groups comfortable with him, but that's no guarantee that Jones as chancellor won't nudge many of the faithful out of their comfort zones. Those who thought Khayat would be a caretaker chancellor because of his deep Ole Miss roots were quickly disabused of that notion. He pushed everyone associated with the university to aim higher than they might have ever imagined.

Jones appears to have the background, outlook and skills to build on the Khayat legacy, which is universally acknowledged as a difficult act to follow. He was seen from early in the search process as the front-runner and that never changed.

Later this week, the board will go through a similar process with another "preferred candidate," Commissioner of Higher Education-designate Hank Bounds. That unconventional choice came as a much bigger surprise than Jones.

Bounds is the state superintendent of education, overseeing K-12 schools. He has no higher education leadership experience, but his four-year tenure as state superintendent has been an impressive stretch. He's tackled perennial, difficult problems that have never been fully or effectively addressed - failing school districts, dropouts, overall academic standards and performance - with a refreshing candor and vigor. He'll no doubt bring the same sharp focus to oversight of the state's eight universities.

By mid-week, the state will have officially filled two of its most critical educational leadership posts with clearly strong choices. Given the critical nature of higher education to Mississippi's hopes for future progress, that's good news for the state.