Looking back on University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg’s legacy after 18 years at the helm of The George Washington University will inevitably invoke nostalgia, fondness and anger – depending on whom you ask.

He has been here too long to simply go down in history as a good or bad president. Trachtenberg’s time here is filled with both success and failure, bold ideas that failed fantastically and new initiatives that left an indelibly positive mark on the University. Regardless of the outcome of his individual projects, however, Trachtenberg always displayed a sincere drive to build GW into a premier educational institution.

And build he has. During his tenure, the campus has changed dramatically; it’s now a place almost unrecognizable to pre-Trachtenberg-era graduates. Along with the expanding campus came expanding national prestige for a onetime commuter school. During his 18-year tenure Trachtenberg has molded Foggy Bottom how he saw fit. But even that wasn’t enough – he also bought the Mount Vernon Campus and put GW in Virginia.

This drive to develop garners Trachtenberg both fans and detractors. While students and faculty benefit from new residence halls and state-of-the-art facilities, community members see Trachtenberg as the epitome of evil, ready to bulldoze every last Foggy Bottom townhouse in the pursuit of campus expansion.

Trachtenberg financed this campus expansion through a keen business sense, which often allowed the University to expand beyond its means in hopes that investments would pay off with higher enrollment and returns on property. The D.C. Chamber of Commerce even named Trachtenberg businessman of the year for 2005.

Many refused to admit that a president could simultaneously advocate for academic and business interests, but Trachtenberg always saw these two as intertwined. Critics portrayed him as more interested in revenue than in education. But he seems to be in the business of academics, here to provide services to the various campus community members who count on him – from students to custodians, faculty to administrators. Trachtenberg knows that a first-rate faculty might not teach in second-rate facilities. First-rate students are keen shoppers who want the best services even if they are peripheral to academics.

Even so, for all this development, investment and financial growth, current students will wonder how Trachtenberg can leave with another mark on his legacy – one of the highest tuition rates in the country.

For as much as people disparage Trachtenberg for a disinterest in academics, the University also went through an academic metamorphosis under his stewardship. The creation of the University Honors Program and the School of Media and Public Affairs are just two of Trachtenberg’s major academic achievements.

Not all of Trachtenberg’s initiatives have been successful. Students and faculty banded together to kill an ill-conceived plan for trimesters, summer sessions and a four-by-four curriculum all rolled into one. Even though his plan failed, the initiative highlights Trachtenberg’s ability to pursue a bold vision and challenge the status quo – qualities necessary in a great leader.

Many, however, are right in criticizing Trachtenberg’s disconnect from the student body. Trachtenberg is not a “man of the people.” He cavorts with the D.C. elite and can be found at more high-priced dinner parties than lunches on campus. His sometimes prickly responses to students and other community members who approached him with complaints has engendered justifiable ill will in them.

With Trachtenberg’s exit GW stands at the precipice between greatness and mediocrity. A new University president will be the biggest hire in GW’s history. This is a different University than it was 18 years ago when Trachtenberg was hired, and GW has the prestige to attract a big-name president.

Whoever follows Trachtenberg must incorporate some of his vision for greatness at this institution while developing his or her own ideas to address areas in which the current administration has been deficient.

Physically, the stage has been set for greatness. In literal terms, Trachtenberg built a campus waiting to be filled with more top-tier faculty and even better students. The new 20-year Campus Plan allows the new president to focus on academics with research on campus development already complete and approved.

There is still time before the transition for Trachtenberg to affect his own history. With one year left, he should focus on filling all the vacancies in directorships and deanships to ensure a smooth exit.

His legacy will be marked by a great duality.

The very initiatives that make Trachtenberg a great president are also fodder for his critics. He is a bold thinker with an even bolder personality. No person on campus is ambivalent when it comes to Trachtenberg. Perhaps that is Trachtenberg’s greatest accomplishment – no matter what he is remembered for as the years go on, he has ensured that his legacy of bold vision and unabashed pursuit of improvement will forever be etched into GW history.