Stephen Joel Trachtenberg

This narrative ignores the history and present-day reality of a complex geopolitical conflict, and does nothing to contribute to peace and reconciliation.

GW has and deserves a top-notch faculty with superb academic credentials and, frequently, experience in the professional realm that few schools can match. But when seeking faculty, we need to leaven the academic bread more than we currently do, and more than most institutions do. At GW, faculty perform research, they seek knowledge and they […]

In a Feb. 27 Hatchet editorial essay, Adam Connor wrote about a personal catastrophe that probably sent chills right into the very bones of most students at GW. His iPod died (“iSolated: iPods and an alternate reality,” p. 4). Worse, his old iPod also died. For 10 long days, Adam had to walk the streets […]

In a Hatchet editorial called “Confession of a Trachtenberg apologist” (Oct. 24, p. 4), Will Dempster said so many nice things about me that I hope he is not in mortal danger from those on campus who believe I may be the Prince of Darkness. It was such a favorable piece that it could even […]

It used to be that tending the crops and looking after the livestock were more important than learning to read and add a column of figures. It made sense. The world, until recently, lived by agriculture. Even when societies acquired enough leisure time to teach their young formally, they still gave precedence to the crops […]

A few months ago, the University published an elegant little booklet called “The George Washington University In and Of the District of Columbia,” “GW + DC” for short. If you have not yet seen a copy and read it, I urge you to do so. On the page or online, I recommend it to students, […]

Even a few years ago, those who worked in higher education still posed a basic question: Were undergraduates engaged in “learning for its own sake,” or were they being groomed for roles in the American economy? For a significant number of academicians, the debate had to do with personal status and curricular details. The noblest […]

As somebody who participated in Greek life as an undergraduate and benefited from the experience, and whose son is not only a member of a fraternity at his university but is president of his chapter, I get tired of hearing anti-fraternity and sorority conspiracy theories uttered by members of the Greek community at GW who […]

GW today, transformed from a modest school to a world-class university, is visibly better than it was when it moved to Foggy Bottom 88 years ago. We have succeeded in creating a first-rank academic community in the D.C., with emphases on both the academic and the community. GW does not go about its business covertly. […]

As our world goes about changing itself at a phenomenal pace into a different kind of place, a school like GW faces all kinds of problems as it strives for self-definition. Should it resist the pull of the internet by making its campus ever more attractive, ever more laden with interest and entertainment? Or would […]