Press-Gazette: UWGB's short-term leader takes long view
Article from the Aug. 30 Green Bay Press-Gazette
By Kelly McBride
kmcbride@greenbaypressgazette.com
David Ward doesn’t talk like someone whose title starts with “interim.”
He speaks about the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s growth agenda as if he’ll be there to see it completed. He raises the issue of faculty compensation as something to be addressed now, not when his permanent replacement takes over.
Yet Ward, the interim chancellor at UWGB, knows his time is limited. As the start of school draws near, the Green Bay native says moving the university forward is job one.
“There’ll be plenty of work to do, I think, in the next year,” Ward said, “but the objective here is to keep the momentum going, so a new person comes in and we haven’t waited a year to make decisions.”
Ward, president of the NorthStar Economics Inc. consulting firm, is temporarily replacing former Chancellor Bruce Shepard, who left this summer to become president of Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash.
A UWGB chancellor search-and-screen committee is working to find Shepard’s permanent replacement, something it hopes to do by January, but Ward said that could take the entire academic year.
Ward isn’t the only one with high hopes for the time between chancellors.
“I think the fundamental expectation is (one) of maintenance, but that’s not our expectation at Green Bay,” said William Laatsch, UWGB interim provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs. “… The expectation under which we’re working is that we’re going to continue to grow — we’re going to continue to follow the ambitious programs that Chancellor Shepard set before his departure.
“So it’s not one of housekeeping, it’s one of continuing to move ahead.”
Ward hopes to do that, at least in part, by emphasizing UWGB’s connections to the larger community and the importance of the relationship between business and education.
They’re relationships with which Ward is familiar because of his work with NorthStar, which he founded in 2000.
A NorthStar study morphed into the New North Inc. partnership of business, civic, education and other leaders in 18 Northeastern Wisconsin counties, Ward said.
Ward is the perfect choice for interim chancellor, said Ginny Riopelle, a university supporter who co-founded UWGB’s Phuture Phoenix program with Shepard’s wife, Cyndie.
Keeping the momentum going could be challenging, she said, but Ward isn’t alone.
“It’s totally doable, and we’re well on our way to doing that,” she said. “It wasn’t only Bruce Shepard’s vision. A lot of people are on board with this vision.”
In addition, Ward is no stranger to filling in on a short-term basis. His temporary positions have included interim chancellor at UW-Oshkosh.
“I’ve had three interim experiences,” Ward said, “and I think you have to approach it from the standpoint of as though you were continuing on — otherwise you’ll be a perennial short-timer. So you’ve got to look at it in terms of the bigger mission of the university.”
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