George Washington University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg announced last week his intention to step down when his contract expires in 2007, after nearly two decades at the head of the District of Columbia’s largest university.
Trachtenberg, who became GWU’s 15th president in 1988, will stay at the university as a professor of public service and retain the tile of president emeritus, according to a GWU press release.
In an interview, Trachtenberg said he tenure was “a transformation” for the university. In recent years, Trachtenberg has pushed for significant changes in GWU’s academic life, including the institution of a trimester schedule which has yet to be enacted.
In addition to a new trimester schedule, Trachtenberg said that the institution of fewer credit hours per major would allow for increased depth of study, encouraging students to explore greater depth of study in fewer, more intensive courses.
“I think we have to follow the model set for us by Columbia, Harvard or Yale,” he said.
Trachtenberg has also supported a closer relationship between GWU and Georgetown, saying that Washington has two excellent universities.
“We used to look over our shoulder at some of our neighbors,” he said, “and we don’t feel that way anymore.”
He praised his Georgetown counterpart, University President John J. DeGioia, for that improved relationship, calling him “one of the best in the business.”
“I think Georgetown is blessed to have him,” Trachtenberg said.
DeGioia returned the compliment, praising Trachtenberg in a statement released yesterday.
“Steve Trachtenberg has always been a good colleague for me and a force for effective collaboration among D.C.-area universities,” DeGioia said in the statement. “I wish him well as he continues to lead GWU during the next 15 months.”
Trachtenberg suggested that one way for the two schools to build on their burgeoning relationship would be to embrace city councilman Jack Evans’ proposal to bring back an annual basketball game between the two schools. Trachtenberg was candid about the Colonials’ chances.
“Some years we would be better, some years we wouldn’t,” he said.
Trachtenberg, who served as chairman of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce before assuming the GWU presidency, will return to that job after he steps down. He said he hopes that Washington will become a business-friendly environment, and that he believes the new Nationals baseball team has been a boon to the city’s economy.
Trachtenberg also expressed hope for the alleviation of poverty and homelessness, and improvement of D.C. public schools.
“I would like to see us build a city on a hill,” he said.
