GW President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg recently went to Paul Junior High School, a public D.C. school, and made an offer to the seventh and eighth grade math class that they couldn’t refuse. He promised them that if, at their completion of high school, they had the grades to be admitted to GW, their college tuition would be paid for by GW.

Trachtenberg’s move is a welcome gesture. It shows that GW actually is playing a beneficial role in its community. The District of Columbia is in miserable shape. Many of the areas that are the local government’s responsibility must try to survive with insufficient financial support. The most striking example is the D.C. public school system.

The months-long embarrassment over who is actually in charge of the public schools system affected those who could least defend themselves in this city of bureaucratic red tape – the school children. Trachtenberg’s actions show the necessity for community involvement. What the D.C. government could not give its children the community must try to make up.

Trachtenberg’s pledge will also hopefully motivate other area universities and corporations to offer similar promises to local school children. Acts of altruism and civic-mindedness are rare occurrences in these days of downsizing and cost-benefit analyses; yet the impact that such acts can cause is immeasurable. Such pledges to other school children should not be made to garner free publicity; they should be done because people selflessly care.