UWL’s Chancellor Beeby getting to know the community, after first week on the job

The newly-hired chancellor of UW-La Crosse has been at work for a week already, and he says he’s trying to stay focused on the needs of the campus.

Dr. James Beeby met with local media at the UWL clock tower on Monday, to discuss how the job is going so far. Beeby, a native of Wales, says he wants to get another new science center built at the university.

“Prairie Springs Two is vital to the campus,” said Beeby. “It’s vital to the community, and to the region and the state, ’cause we know that UWL produces excellent graduates who go out into the local community, and go to local businesses.”

One Prairie Springs building opened a few years ago, but part two of the project has been stalled at the state level for several years. Beeby says he’s focusing on improving the academic programs in general at UWL.

Beeby was hired as chancellor in March, during a search process that followed the firing of Joe Gow as chancellor, after he was discovered to be producing and appearing in pornographic videos with his wife. Gow is waiting to learn whether the UW system will dismiss him as an instructor at the La Crosse campus.

Beeby started work on July 1st, and has spent much of his first week in La Crosse discovering the city and meeting people.

“People have been very welcoming, very nice,” he told reporters. “It’s a beautiful town, really friendly, vibrant, a lot of people around to say hello to.” Beeby says he wants to be known as the “walking chancellor” of UWL. Just before coming to La Crosse, Beeby was vice president of a college in New Hampshire.