A few days before this year's Commencement ceremonies, the Board of Trustees announced its intention to commemorate the work of outgoing University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg by renaming the School of Public Policy and Public Administration in his honor.
The Board presented Trachtenberg with a resolution to rename the school the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration at a luncheon following the Board's last meeting of the year Friday. Administrators, trustees, deans, members of the Faculty Senate and a table full of current and past Student Association presidents were present both for the meeting and the luncheon.
The resolution to rename the school in his honor left Trachtenberg speechless and in tears. In an interview with The Hatchet after the luncheon, Trachtenberg said renaming the school, "gives some punctuation to my entire career and to my life."
"It really is a serious, adult honor ... it makes me feel very responsible," he said
Trachtenberg said the trustees allowed him to choose the school that would bear his name. When former University President Lloyd Elliott retired, he was afforded this same privilege and chose the international affairs school - now the Elliott School of International Affairs.
On August 1, Trachtenberg will become a professor of public service in the newly dubbed Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration, though he will not start teaching right away. Trachtenberg said this is because he does not want to be "sulking in (his) tent" while University President-elect Stephen Knapp addresses new students at Freshmen Convocation.
At the board meeting, Trachtenberg said his final words to the trustees about some of the issues he has been most criticized for, while indirectly giving advice to incoming University President Steven Knapp, who did not attend the meeting.
"The institution must remain always dynamic," Trachtenberg said. "One cannot become satisfied ... It's nice to hear praise, but it's also important not to believe too much of it."
The Board presented Trachtenberg with a resolution to rename the school the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration at a luncheon following the Board's last meeting of the year Friday. Administrators, trustees, deans, members of the Faculty Senate and a table full of current and past Student Association presidents were present both for the meeting and the luncheon.
The resolution to rename the school in his honor left Trachtenberg speechless and in tears. In an interview with The Hatchet after the luncheon, Trachtenberg said renaming the school, "gives some punctuation to my entire career and to my life."
"It really is a serious, adult honor ... it makes me feel very responsible," he said
Trachtenberg said the trustees allowed him to choose the school that would bear his name. When former University President Lloyd Elliott retired, he was afforded this same privilege and chose the international affairs school - now the Elliott School of International Affairs.
On August 1, Trachtenberg will become a professor of public service in the newly dubbed Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration, though he will not start teaching right away. Trachtenberg said this is because he does not want to be "sulking in (his) tent" while University President-elect Stephen Knapp addresses new students at Freshmen Convocation.
At the board meeting, Trachtenberg said his final words to the trustees about some of the issues he has been most criticized for, while indirectly giving advice to incoming University President Steven Knapp, who did not attend the meeting.
"The institution must remain always dynamic," Trachtenberg said. "One cannot become satisfied ... It's nice to hear praise, but it's also important not to believe too much of it."
