The new president of Alcorn State University will officially take over the job Jan. 3, six months after he was originally scheduled to work.

George Ross, 52, was to become the university’s 17th president on May 28, but shortly after movers arrived to his home in Mount Pleasant, Mich., Ross became ill and was diagnosed with acute leukemia.

After months of treatment at Ann Arbor’s University of Michigan Hospital, Ross said in July that the disease is in remission.

Ross, who currently serves as vice president of finance and administrative services at Central Michigan University, was hired in the spring to succeed the late Clinton Bristow Jr., who died of heart failure in 2006.

Ross, a Utica native, is planning to arrive in Lorman a few days after Christmas.

In November, Ross visited the school to reassure everyone that he still planned to serve as president of the university.

“There was some trepidation, concern about how I was doing, and I thought it was important that people see me,” Ross told The Clarion-Ledger. “I walked in straight and healthy, feeling good and I think it gave them a sense of relief, joy and pleasure to see me healthy.”

Ross said he is not undergoing further treatments, but will have periodic examinations at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Malvin Williams, the school’s administrator, has been serving as interim president since Bristow’s death.