Betty Glassman Trachtenberg (October 16, 1933 – March 14, 2023) was an American college administrator. She was Dean of Student Affairs at Yale College from 1987 to 2007.
Betty Glassman Trachtenberg | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Betty Glassman October 16, 1933 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Died | March 14, 2023 (age 89) Hamden, Connecticut |
| Occupation | College administrator |
| Spouse | Alan Trachtenberg |
Early life and education
editGlassman was born in Philadelphia, the daughter of Solomon Glassman and Anna London Glassman. Both of her parents were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe.[1] Her father ran a grocery store. She studied piano with Leo Ornstein,[2] and graduated from Girls High School in 1951.[3]
Career
editTrachtenberg worked in administration at Yale College, beginning in 1974 in the summer program,[4] and then in the admissions office, where she was associate director. She was director of the Eli Whitney Students Program for nontraditional-age students, and active in the Yale Women's Center.[2] She was a founding leader of the Sexual Harassment Grievance Board, and the Sexual Harassment and Assault Resource and Education Center, both at Yale.[5]
Trachtenberg was Yale College's Dean of Student Affairs from 1987 until she retired in 2007.[6][7] This position brought her into the center of campus policy enforcement controversies.[8] In the 1990s she was named as a defendant in a lawsuit by the "Yale Five", a group of Orthodox Jewish students who argued that Yale's undergraduate housing policies were discriminatory.[9][10] The suit was dismissed in 1998.[11] In 2005, she was responsible for an unpopular new ban on drinking games and extended tailgating at football games.[12] She was also the college's spokesperson when celebrity students made headlines.[13][14] She gave an oral history interview to the Yale Archives in 2009.[1]
Trachtenberg taught piano as a young woman. in the 1960s she co-founded the Music Academy in State College, Pennsylvania.[3][4] In her retirement, she served on the board of New Haven's Neighborhood Music School (NMS).[3]
Personal life
editGlassman married her childhood friend Alan Trachtenberg in 1952. They had three children, Zev, Elissa, and Julie. Her husband died in 2020,[15] and she died in 2023, at the age of 89, in Hamden, Connecticut.[2]
References
edit- ^ a b "Betty Glassman Trachtenberg, oral history interview". Archives at Yale. February 16, 2009. Retrieved 2023-10-21.
- ^ a b c Laurans, Penelope (2023-03-16). "Betty Trachtenberg, dean and guiding force to a generation of Yale students". YaleNews. Retrieved 2023-10-21.
- ^ a b c "Betty Trachtenberg Obituary (1933 - 2023)". The New Haven Register, via Legacy.com. Retrieved 2023-10-21.
- ^ a b Gonzalez, Susan (May 25, 2007). "Trachtenberg reflects on her 20 years as 'Betty T.'". Yale Bulletin & Calendar. 35 (29).
- ^ "In Memoriam: Betty Glassman Trachtenberg, 1933-2023". Women In Academia Report. 2023-03-29. Retrieved 2023-10-21.
- ^ Kaplan, Thomas; Macbeth, Cullen (2006-11-07). "Dean's exit is 'end of an era'". Yale Daily News. Retrieved 2023-10-21.
- ^ Branch, Mark Alden (January–February 2007). "Mother Yale". Yale Alumni Magazine.
- ^ "Yale cheerleaders make waves over Navy ritual". Arizona Republic. 1988-10-15. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-10-21 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Jacoby, Jeff (Winter 2002). "Assimilation's Retreat, a review of Samuel G. Freedman, Jew vs. Jew: the Struggle for the Soul of American Jewry". Azure: Ideas for the Jewish Nation. Retrieved 2023-10-21.
- ^ Muller, Eli (2001-01-12). "Orthodox Jews relieved by 'Yale 5' loss". Yale Daily News. Retrieved 2023-10-21.
- ^ "`Yale Five' Suit Dismissed By Conn. Judge". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 2023-10-21.
- ^ Apuzzo, Matt (2005-10-28). "Yale bans drinking games, curtails tailgating or Harvard-Yale football". The Deming Headlight. p. 14. Retrieved 2023-10-21 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Swedish princess attends Yale". The San Francisco Examiner. 1998-03-02. p. 31. Retrieved 2023-10-21 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Rumpus Causing a Ruckus Over Barbara's Wild Ride". Hartford Courant. 2001-04-23. p. 30. Retrieved 2023-10-21 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Laurans, Penelope (2020-08-18). "Alan Trachtenberg, pioneered new ways of understanding American culture". YaleNews. Retrieved 2023-10-21.