GW announced tonight that University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg will not be the keynote speaker at Commencement this May. Instead, he and all of the honorary degree recipients and the student speaker will address graduates in the same capacity and there will not be a single keynote speaker.

Trachtenberg issued a statement this evening regarding the decision to alter Commencement plans, citing the recent events at Virginia Tech.

Following is an excerpt from his statement. Check back at www.gwhatchet.com for a full story.

“It is now clear that commencement 2007 will be a time of both
celebration and deep reflection on campuses across America as we honor
our graduates while holding the Virginia Tech community in our hearts.

“As you know, there has been a spirited discussion on our own campus
over the past week about commencement. I would like to have us move
forward in unison. To this end, I have asked my colleagues
responsible for commencement weekend to try to improve and articulate
our plans. Rather than providing a single keynote address, we are
reviving a model used successfully in the past by which the
commencement audience will receive words of wisdom from each of our
five stellar honorary degree recipients, as well as our extraordinary
student speaker who resumed her studies at GW after a tour of duty as
a U.S. Marine in Iraq.”