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hen Icaught my first true glimpse ofher, I was waiting in a plushchair in the Yale College Dean's Office, an airy set of suites on the firstfloor of the castle-like Sterling-Sheffield-Strathcona Hall. She swooped out ofa nearby room, agitated but all business, and apologetically asked toreschedule. A bit of a crisis had come up. No details. When I returned thatafternoon, she was calm and deliberate, but the three empty cups of coffeescattered across her desk told the story of her morning.

Crises are hardlyunusual for Betty Trachtenberg. Her official job description islong—2,866 words long—but today, she succinctly sums herself up asthe “Dean of Sex, Drugs, and Rock'n'Roll.” And on a college campus brimmingwith ambitious, not entirely sensible young adults, it's not surprising thatshe finds enough to keep her busy. She has been Yale's Dean of Student Affairsfor 20 years, through five Deans of Yale College and boundless undergraduatemischief. And at the close of the year, Trachtenberg will step down, a decisionshe announced last November.

With finals brewing onthe horizon and summer fast approaching, Yale is hastening the search for hersuccessor. “It may be difficult for anyone to do the job in the way that DeanTrachtenberg did,” said Yale College Dean Peter Salovey, GRD '86. The exit ofwoman who has held the reins of student life through the fall of the SovietUnion and the dark daysof 9/11 is no small matter. The Society of Orpheus and Bacchus, an a cappella group renowned fortheir not-quite-kosher antics, heralded her departure with a Valentine's Dayshow cheekily titled, “You're a Good Man, Betty T.” Naturally, Trachtenbergattended.

Highly visible isright—Trachtenberg is certainly the only Yale administrator to be knownby her first name and last initial. Could anyone imagine a Rick L.? She is aflurry of a woman at times, exceedingly calm at others; she chooses herwords  very carefully when shespeaks. She may be small, but no one could ever make the mistake of overlookingher.

Trachtenberg was born and raised in Philadelphia,where she was a serious piano student. While she no longer plays, a baby grandpiano still sits in her home. “I thought I was going to be a pianist,” shesaid. “What did Einstein say? Genius is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percentperspiration, and I didn't have the perspiration.” Curious words from someonewho devotes herself to a job that seems to be 100 percent perspiration, butthen again, Trachtenberg isn't an easy woman to pin down.

There is, in fact, lifebefore Yale, and Trachtenberg made full use of it. She established a musicschool at Penn State, and traveled with her husband to Stanford for a yearbefore he was invited to Yale in 1969. In that year, Yale College began toadmit women, Richard Nixon was inaugurated as the president of the UnitedStates, man walked on the moon, and Betty T first set foot on campus.

Five years later, in1974, Trachtenberg took her first position with the administration, chargedwith admitting non-Yale students to the newly created summer term. From thereon, “she just kept going,” explained her husband. Trachtenberg continued to workin admissions, where she was influential in developing the special studentsprogram now known as the Eli Whitney Students Program—an institution thatattracted public attention last year when former Taliban envoy and Yalenon-degree student Rahmatullah Hashemi applied unsuccessfully for admission. Inthe spring of 1984, she arrived at the Dean's Office, stepping into the role ofDirector of Freshman Affairs.

It was in those yearsthat Trachtenberg built up a friendship with then-Dean of Student Affairs LloydSuttle. After 20 years, the two are still “fast friends and colleagues,” accordingto Suttle, and seek time to eat the occasional lunch together. When Suttle leftthe Dean's Office for the Provost's in 1987, Trachtenberg applied for and wasasked to assume his post.

Today, it seems she'sfigured most of it out. When asked to describe her, all of her colleagues usedwords like seasoned, wise, and intuitive. Among the various responsibilitiesthat have been a part of her job at some point or another: working on theSexual Harassment Grievances Board; serving on the infamous Executive Committee;supporting the campus after the death of a student; delving into thenitty-gritty of roommate issues; grappling with underage drinking; helpingparents let go.

Over the past twenty years, Trachtenberghas done quite the balancing act. “You needsomeone to impose order,” reasoned YCC secretary Zach Marks, SY '09. “Sometimesthe goals of the university and the interests of the students might not be oneand the same. There's tension there.” Dean Trachtenberg's role suspends her atthe nucleus of that tension—she is the arbiter of the law—and attimes students have found her decisions hard to swallow.

“A lot of people think she's a stickler,” said Marks, though he addedthat his experience with her has been “nothing but pleasant.” This divided viewof Trachtenberg has defined her administrative career. Alexandra Suich, BK '08,has worked with Trachtenberg on the Sexual Harassment Grievances Board, and isone of two undergraduates on the search committee. Suich believes thatTrachtenberg's complex reputation stems from the fact that she, “like everyeffective leader,” has two sides to her personality.

Dean of FreshmanAffairs George Levesque described a certain ambitious naiveté that many youngYalies exhibit. “Thinking that you can throw a conference or event and it justhappens, [without considering] all of the planning that goes into it and all ofthe things that go wrong, and [then] needing to be rescued,” explainedLevesque, is a student attitude to which administrators are well attuned.

To Suttle, it'sprecisely this willingness to “just let it all out, and do things that mostother adults find amazing,” reflected in her valiant Vader cameo, that setsTrachtenberg apart.

Jane Edwards, AssociateDean of Yale College and chair of the search committee, recognizes the inherentchallenges in any attempt to replace Trachtenberg. “I think that even if wehire the best person on the planet—which we will—we're going tomiss Dean Trachtenberg,” Edwards said.

Today, there are over350 registered student organizations, and parties like Casino Night, theFreshman Screw, and Spring Fling are considered a fact of life. Trachtenberghas weathered the expansion of her role with grace, though she laments that asa result, she's “been bureaucratized.” The intensive search effort that isoccurring today would have been unheard of 20 years ago; in a way, Trachtenberghas greatly raised the expectations for what a Dean of Student Affairscan—and must—be.

“We're looking forsomebody who can do it all,” said Salovey. He acknowledged that, much like whenTrachtenberg first took the position, there will be a “learning curve” when thenew dean assumes his or her position. Luckily, Trachtenberg will be nearby.“I'll be here. I only live two miles away. I'd be happy to help,” she said.

That's not to say thatshe isn't grateful for the first time off she's had in quite a while. Whenasked what she will pursue with her newfound freedom, Trachtenberg listedpiano, pottery, and pleasure reading as viable possibilities. “Maybe I'll stareinto space, which is not so bad either,” she said.

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