George Washington University President Steven Knapp announced Tuesday that he will step down from his post in summer 2017 after he finishes a decade at the helm of the largest university in the nation’s capital.
Knapp, the university’s 16th president, has overseen an eventful era for GWU. Under his tenure, the 25,600-student private university acquired the Beaux-Arts building on 17th Street NW that housed the Corcoran Gallery of Art, absorbed the Corcoran College of Art and Design, developed a massive science and engineering hall to help the school compete with prominent research institutions and dropped its requirement for freshman applicants to submit SAT or ACT admission test scores.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to have played a role in what we have accomplished together these past nine years, from spectacular new buildings to groundbreaking institutional partnerships to innovative programs that bring together the contributions of multiple disciplines to address the world’s most pressing challenges,” Knapp said in a statement.
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After he took office in August 2007, Knapp sought to alter an image GWU had acquired over the years — whether fairly or unfairly — as a pricey university that was a magnet for wealthy students.
In 2006-2007, GWU had the second-highest tuition and fees in the country among private colleges and universities. By the 2015-2016 school year, it ranked 12th, with tuition and fees of $50,435, not counting room and board. It has raised its financial aid budget substantially, officials say. Three-fifths of all undergraduates receive grants or scholarships, and 14 percent qualify for need-based federal Pell grants.
An English literature scholar with expertise in the Romantic era, Knapp was provost of Johns Hopkins University before he was named to succeed Stephen J. Trachtenberg as GWU’s president. Knapp, who turns 65 next week, earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a master’s degree and doctorate from Cornell University.
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Knapp’s announcement means two private universities in the District are embarking on leadership transitions. American University President Cornelius M. “Neil” Kerwin, a contemporary of Knapp, announced in March that he will step down at the end of the next school year.
In a telephone interview, Knapp said the decision to step down after his contract ends in July 2017 was entirely his own. He said he wants to give the university’s governing board enough time to launch an effective search.
Share this articleShare“None of the work is ever done, right?” he said. “There are a lot of projects still under way. But you know, those will continue into the future.”
An overarching goal when Knapp arrived was to raise the university’s profile among research institutions.
“Knapp was very successful in that,” said Charles Garris, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering who chairs the executive committee of the Faculty Senate. “We recruited a lot of world-class faculty. I would give him very high marks.”
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Garris cited the opening of the $275 million science and engineering hall in 2015 as a landmark. With 500,000 square feet, the building at 22nd and H streets NW is the largest scientific facility among universities in the District and one of the largest in the region.
In 2012, GW suffered one of the major embarrassments of Knapp’s tenure when university officials disclosed that the school had significantly overstated the academic credentials of the entering class of fall 2011. The university had reported that 78 percent of incoming freshmen graduated in the top 10 percent of their high school class in 2011 when only 58 percent had done so, officials acknowledged. As a result, U.S. News and World Report withdrew GW’s ranking on its 2012 list of national universities (it had ranked 51st). The next year, the university made it back onto the ranking list at nearly the same level. This year it ranks 57th.
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