Op-eds
By Charles Garris
May 24, 2021 1:13 AM
Charles Garris is a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, a member of the Faculty Senate and a former Chair of the Faculty Senate executive committee.
It is with great sadness that I learned of University President Thomas LeBlanc’s decision to retire from his position at the end of the 2021–22 academic year. At the beginning of his presidency, there was a palpable excitement that he would build on the upward trajectory of excellence left to him by the administrations of predecessors Stephen Joel Trachtenberg and Steven Knapp. LeBlanc was provided by the presidential search committee with a detailed analysis which defined a series of major historical challenges that had prevented GW from joining the top tier academic institutions of the nation and limited the future trajectory of the institution.