BoT Meeting: Highlights

A little late, but here are some of the highlights from Friday’s winter meeting of the Board of Trustees:

Other notes from today’s Board of Trustees meeting:

• The Trustees were somewhat giddy after a very exciting week at GW: the opening of a brand new business school; Chief Justice John Roberts presiding over the Moot Court competition; Broadway Legend Carol Channing’s performance; and GW associate professor James Clark’s discovery of T-Rex’s father.
• President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg reiterated GW’s commitment to seek housing options for graduate students and junior faculty. “In the years to come, it will become increasingly difficult to recruit faculty” with the rising cost of city living, he said. He told the Board that the university is looking into tearing down HOVA to invest in faculty housing.
• Trachtenberg joked that the 3.9 percent tuition hike was “the lowest tuition raise in the history of the western hemisphere.” The Trustees approved the hike in executive session after the meeting.
• In his report to the Board, Trachtenberg told the Trustees of DC Councilman Jack Evans’ proposal to the heads of Georgetown and GW for a “Ward 2 Championship” game in basketball. Trachtenberg told the Daily Colonial, “We’ll take them anytime, anyplace.” He reiterated his resolve in front of the Trustees.
• He also told the Board of an interview he did for the Wall Street Journal, in which he was asked if the university was considering building a new stadium for the #8 ranked basketball team. “We were,” he said to the reporter. “We’re going to call it the science building.”
• In light of CCAS Dean William Frawley’s acceptance of the University of Mary Washington presidency, Trachtenberg expressed a concern that as the university becomes more renowned, the faculty will continued to be offer bigger and better jobs. “I think we’re going to see this more and more in the years to come,” he said. “I hope we can hold on to Karl Hobbs.”
• In his statement before the Board, SA President Audai Shakour briefed the Trustees on the launch of gwlist.com, the online portal that allows student to trade books and tests. He said that he has yet to market the website to the students. He also told the Board of his intentions to work “proactively” to raise the student fee fifty cents and his promise of creating a Graduate Student Council for upper level students.
• 65 percent of the student body was in the top 10 percent of their high school class, according to the head Student Affairs Committee, Cissy Baker. She said that the challenge for the school is to now “respond to the academic demands of these students.” One of the most common reasons a student leaves GW is because he or she does not feel academically challenged, she said. “We don’t want them to transfer.” As for incoming applications, Baker said they were “bubbling up” and that the applicant pool was “very healthy.”
• The 4-by-4 site visits are complete, yet the work in trying to decide whether or not to implement the new schedule at GW is “not yet complete,” said Thomas. They are expected to complete their report and recommendations by the end of March.
• The GW Hospital updated their mission statement to make it clearer and more concise. Also, it will focus more on taking advantage of its location in the city.

There were other items that came up that we are looking into. We will have reports on those later in the week.