Former University president Stephen Joel Trachtenberg was never one to hold his tongue during his tenure as GW president, but with the release of his newest book, it’s clear the 71-year-old professor still has more to say.
In “Big Man on Campus,” released this June, Trachtenberg offers insight into the duties of a University president using his characteristically candid style. Many of the pages are devoted to the challenges he faced with everyone from faculty and students to Foggy Bottom neighbors and prospective donors.
“There are things you can’t say as sitting president,” Trachtenberg said in a phone interview. “It’s one of the great pleasures of my life to make comments and speak my mind. Now that I’m out of office, it’s an appropriate time.”
He admits in the book that the opinions of professors are important for a University president, but Trachtenberg has a long list of grievances with the faculty – especially those who have been bolstered by tenure.
Although he refers to a few “crackpots” in “Big Man on Campus,” Trachtenberg said he is mainly concerned with the way faculty behave when they act collectively, such as in the Faculty Senate.
“The problems arise when (faculty) gather as a group, clutching their copies of ‘Robert’s Rules of Order,’ pledged to oppose any perceived threat to the status quo that may be suggested by their president,” Trachtenberg writes.
Although Trachtenberg gets the last word in many of the anecdotes he offers, he also reflects on his regrets as president, like not buying property or yielding to the faculty’s choice of a dean only to have them vote no confidence soon after.
Throughout the book, which Trachtenberg said he dictated to an assistant, he is particularly critical of those who made the lives of his fellow University presidents difficult.
He characterizes the student protests of Jane K. Fernandes – who was chosen and later rejected as president of Gallaudet – as “kids misbehaving” and their demonstrations as a “tantrum.” Later he laments the treatment of former Harvard University president Lawrence Summers, whose faculty served him a vote of no confidence for remarks he made about women and science, and Duke University president Richard Brodhead, who was the subject of public outcry for failing to prevent the lacrosse sex scandal.
He also defends presidents who had been criticized for being too absent from their campuses by comparing the University president life to that of a congressman – always campaigning.
“There are people who believe no matter how hard you run and how many events you attend the reason they do not see you anywhere is that you are never anywhere and therefore are an invisible president,” Trachtenberg writes. “The presidency is a political race in which the election never comes.”
For University President Steven Knapp, Trachtenberg has quite a few words of wisdom. He often frames his comments about dealing with the various University constituents as passing on suggestions for “his successor.” Among other things, Trachtenberg suggests Knapp should hold regular office hours and try to delegate responsibly. A good sense of humor helps too, he writes.
“A president must also possess an ironic streak, including when listening to students – with no knowledge of history – explaining how the world had come to this sorry state,” Trachtenberg wrote.
“It’s not for me to instruct President Knapp,” Trachtenberg said in the interview. “I was mostly trying to be encouraging with these observations. Dreaming out loud, you could say.”
Knapp, when asked about the book, said he had not yet read it but was looking forward to in the future.
“It’d be an interesting read,” Knapp said.
This is Trachtenberg’s eighth book and his ninth will also be released this month. The new book, “Letters to the Next President of the United States,” will be about higher education and Trachtenberg said that he hopes the issues he raises will arise at presidential debates. He also hinted that, if called, he would like to be involved with the next president’s education policy-making.
This might not be a new aspiration, as Trachtenberg reveals in “Big Man on Campus” that he once told Colin Powell while dining at the Uruguayan embassy that he could help him with speechwriting if the general ever ran for president.
“I’ve been involved with politics my entire career,” said Trachtenberg, who is a registered Democrat. “If asked, you serve your country no matter what, Democrat or Republican.”
