Betty Glassman Trachtenberg

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
DiedMarch 14, 2023 (age 89)
Hamden, Connecticut
OccupationCollege administrator
SpouseAlan Trachtenberg

Early life and education

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Glassman 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

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Trachtenberg 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

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Glassman 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

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  1. ^ a b "Betty Glassman Trachtenberg, oral history interview". Archives at Yale. February 16, 2009. Retrieved 2023-10-21.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ a b c "Betty Trachtenberg Obituary (1933 - 2023)". The New Haven Register, via Legacy.com. Retrieved 2023-10-21.
  4. ^ a b Gonzalez, Susan (May 25, 2007). "Trachtenberg reflects on her 20 years as 'Betty T.'". Yale Bulletin & Calendar. 35 (29).
  5. ^ "In Memoriam: Betty Glassman Trachtenberg, 1933-2023". Women In Academia Report. 2023-03-29. Retrieved 2023-10-21.
  6. ^ Kaplan, Thomas; Macbeth, Cullen (2006-11-07). "Dean's exit is 'end of an era'". Yale Daily News. Retrieved 2023-10-21.
  7. ^ Branch, Mark Alden (January–February 2007). "Mother Yale". Yale Alumni Magazine.
  8. ^ "Yale cheerleaders make waves over Navy ritual". Arizona Republic. 1988-10-15. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-10-21 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ Muller, Eli (2001-01-12). "Orthodox Jews relieved by 'Yale 5' loss". Yale Daily News. Retrieved 2023-10-21.
  11. ^ "`Yale Five' Suit Dismissed By Conn. Judge". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 2023-10-21.
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ "Swedish princess attends Yale". The San Francisco Examiner. 1998-03-02. p. 31. Retrieved 2023-10-21 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ "Rumpus Causing a Ruckus Over Barbara's Wild Ride". Hartford Courant. 2001-04-23. p. 30. Retrieved 2023-10-21 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ Laurans, Penelope (2020-08-18). "Alan Trachtenberg, pioneered new ways of understanding American culture". YaleNews. Retrieved 2023-10-21.