Future Western President Bruce Shepard has made it clear that while there is a time and place for formality, he wants students to just call him by his first name.
"One of my hopes is that as I walk around campus, people will yell out, ‘Hey Bruce' because they know who I am," Shepard said.
As Shepard enters Western along with the largest freshmen class in school history, he said everyone should remember one thing — get involved with their campus community and even stop by during his open office hours just to say hello.
Shepard said he isn’t going to spend all of his time hiding in a hard-to-access office in Old Main.
He said he plans to spend as much time as he can getting directly involved with the Western community.
"I want to meet everyone," Shepard said. "I want to be able to take little breaks during the day and just walk around outside and stop and chat with people."
These little chats aren’t the only way Shepard will involve himself with the campus community. Shepard plans to spend his "freshman" year at Western learning as much about the community and the campus, so he can lead Western in a direction that the faculty, students and community want to go, he said.
Shepard said he can relate strongly with incoming freshmen coming to Western for their first university experience. It can sometimes be difficult to change gears from what a person is used to doing, he said.
The most important thing freshmen should think about is becoming engaged in their classes as well as in some of the many extracurriculars Western offers, he said.
"One of the first things that attracted me to Western was the phrase ‘Engaged Excellence,'" Shepard said. "I want all new students to feel welcomed by the campus community, but I think it is important for the students themselves to get involved — to engage themselves outside as well as inside classes. The more engaged everyone is, the more successful the whole community can be."
Shepard said he plans to get involved with many of the different academic programs Western has to offer. He also plans to take part in as many student events as possible, he said.
One thing Shepard said he liked to do in Wisconsin that he plans to continue at Western is to invite students who have earned special distinction to his house to have dinner with his family.
"Breakfast with the president" is another event Shepard said he will be bring with him from Wisconsin to improve informal lines of communication. He invites a random sampling of students, staff and faculty to eat breakfast together or get coffee somewhere on campus and to talk about how things are going at Western.
"The first year is going to be an educational phase for me," Shepard said. "I need to know what Western wants, so I can be effective in my job. I want to talk to as many people as possible — survey people. I want to get to know Western and hopefully let Western know me."
As busy as his job keeps him, he plans to spend as much of it as possible talking with students.
"You get into this business because you love students," Shepard said. "But then in administration, you end up seeing them less and less. I want to change that."
