That's a refreshing change of thinking in the campus hierarchy. It bodes well for the future of the university and for the educational opportunities and economic health of Northeastern Wisconsin.

We met last week with Shepard, a few days after he was inaugurated as just the fourth chancellor in the 33 years that UWGB has been in existence as a four-year university. (Details of our interview are on today's Perspective page).

Shepard has spent much of his first 11 months on the job meeting with thousands of people both on and off campus.

After the often-stormy administration of Mark Perkins, Shepard and his open, inclusive and forthright style have been welcomed by students, faculty, staff and community.

Shepard is a quick study. After arriving late last year from an administrator's position at Eastern Oregon University, he soon saw a disconnect between the university and community.

Shepard said he felt "that the campus was going in a direction that was apart from the region.''

"The evidence is that the Legislature didn't pay us to be better to attract students from out of state,'' Shepard told us. "But that was the strategy that was being followed.''

Shepard thought he would have to convince the faculty and staff that the university was headed in the wrong direction, but he said he found unanimous support for serving the region, rather than trying to be a national liberal arts institution.

Shepard has an ambitious 10-year plan for the university that calls for a student body of 7,500, an increase of about 2,000 students. That can be achieved, he said, in a variety of ways.

One involves breaking down of walls between institutions — something higher education has always struggled with.

"If we're serious about being this region's university, we will be building relationships with the two-year institutions and the technical colleges and taking a lot more transfer students than we're taking right now,'' Shepard said.

Shepard also talks about the need to expand the teacher education and business programs to meet student demand, to improve retention of existing students and to do a better job of serving the area's minority populations.

A state budget deficit that could approach $3 billion over the next two years could be ominous for the UW System.