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Stephen Joel Trachtenberg is the current President of The George Washington University. He has announced his retirement effective July 2007. He will be replaced by Steven Knapp, provost of Johns Hopkins University.

Trachtenberg is a native of Brooklyn, NY. He graduated from Columbia University in 1959, and earned the Juris Doctor from Yale University in 1962 and the Master of Public Administration degree from Harvard University in 1966.

He is the author of numerous books including The Art of Hiring in America's Colleges & Universities, Thinking Out Loud, Reflections on Higher Education, and Speaking His Mind. A graduate of Columbia University, he began his career in higher education at Boston University and left to take the Presidency at the University of Hartford. From there he left for the George Washington University in Washington, DC.

As President of The George Washington University, he has opened new buildings for the the School of Business and the Elliott School of International Affairs, a new hospital, and added the Mount Vernon Campus, formerly the Mount Vernon College for Women. Trachtenberg also started a full scholarship program for DC public school students, increased the national profile of the University, and has fostered the observance of school traditions such as George Washington's birthday celebration. He added new traditions such as a Hippo mascot, the Order of the Hippo secret society, chimes which ring out the GW Fight Song and the Alma Mater in the University Yard, the heart of the Foggy Bottom campus.

Although a selection committee was formed for the choosing of the replacement for Trachtenberg, a job which there were over 100 applicants for, Trachtenberg chose not to be involved in this committee, and therefore had no direct input in the choice of his successor.

• GWU official biography
• GW Hatchet coverage of Trachtenberg's retirement

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