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Community
leaders have made the case for the Growth Agenda even more effectively than
I can. They understand the importance of a larger public university to a
region undergoing critical economic and demographic changes. Members of the UW System Board of Regents repeatedly have expressed their support for the Growth Agenda and have noted how impressed they are with the community’s case for the proposal. In fact, the Regents have adopted it as the agenda for the entire UW System. With the fall elections approaching, now is a crucial time for creating the political will needed to make the Growth Agenda reality. We must ask every candidate for elected office if they support the plan and let them know it will be on our minds on Election Day. We face many other challenges in the coming year, from building and strengthening partnerships across our region to continuing to diversify our student body and faculty and staff. I am pleased to report that we are seeing great strides in our efforts to build a more diverse campus community. Our freshman class this year includes 83 students of color, 8 percent of the overall freshman enrollment and easily an all-time record for UW-Green Bay. I applaud and thank those whose efforts made this record possible. Our award-winning Phuture Phoenix program continues to experience great success — and pose new challenges. What started as a one-day campus visit has evolved into a complex program with a continual presence in the area’s K-12 schools. I am convinced that Phuture Phoenix, a key component of our Growth Agenda, must move from a volunteer-based program to a regular, ongoing part of the University. At our Fall Convocation, I also issued a new and invigorating challenge to our faculty and staff: to build “the next UWGB.” |
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I
believe strongly that this is no time for Green Bay’s University to
rest on its laurels and figure that all we have to do is open our doors
and students will walk through. This is, instead, a time when we must break
out of the pack, just as our University’s founders did four decades
ago. Our critics certainly have many ideas about what our future should look like. One of my concerns is that we in higher education will come across as naysayers, unwilling to stray from the comforts of the status quo. I must admit that the history of higher education in this country makes me a little uneasy. For example, when the GI Bill of Rights opened the doors of colleges and universities after World War II to what became known as the Greatest Generation, many higher education leaders reacted with suspicion. I have asked our campus community to think creatively about the future — just as creatively as those who built the first UWGB — and not worry about the inevitable mistakes we will make together along the way. I am eager to see many innovative and constructive ideas come forth in response to this challenge. As I have for the past five years, I look forward to using “Chancellor’s FYI” to provide monthly updates on what’s happening at your UW-Green Bay. I enjoy hearing from you — in response to something you may have read here or about any other matter concerning Green Bay’s University of Wisconsin. Feel free to call me at 465-2207 or e-mail me at shepardb@uwgb.edu. Have a great year. Thanks for supporting UW-Green Bay and helping us live our theme of connecting learning to life.  Bruce Shepard |
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