Charles W. Steger

Charles W. Steger
15th President of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Term	2000 – present
Predecessor	Paul Torgersen
Born	June 16, 1947 (1947-06-16) (age 64) Richmond, Virginia
Alma mater	Virginia Tech

Charles W. Steger, Ph.D. (born June 16, 1947) is the 15th and current president of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States. He graduated in 1969 from Virginia Tech, where he also received his master's and doctoral degrees in architecture.

Dr. Steger has served Virginia Tech at nearly every level possible. He has been a Virginia Tech student, instructor (where he won two teaching excellence awards and co-authored a textbook now in its seventh edition), academic department head, college dean (the youngest dean of any college of architecture in the US), vice president, and now president.

In Dr. Steger's previous position as Vice President for Development and University Relations, he served as director of a six-year campaign which exceeded its $250 million goal raising $337.4 million with over 71,000 donors.

Accomplishments as President

Dr. Steger's early years as president focused on expanding Virginia Tech's continuing education and outreach programs beyond the main Blacksburg campus. Under his administration, Virginia Tech created the Center for European Studies and Architecture in Switzerland and the Washington-Alexandria Center for Architecture near Washington, D.C. Steger was also instrumental in the creation of Virginia Tech's Public Service Office in downtown Richmond. Most recently, Steger's administration was instrumental in the establishment of the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute which will focus on research efforts to end disease, expand the world's food supply, and environmental protection. In an effort to draw many research and outreach activities together, Steger's administration also created the Virginia Tech Institute for Information Technology.

Awards and Appointments

Dr. Steger has been appointed to the Governor's Commission on Population Growth and Development. He also served on the Board of Trustees of Hollins University. In addition to his duties as Virginia Tech president, he also serves as president of the Endowment Foundation Center in the Square in Roanoke, Virginia. Dr. Steger also is a director on the Boswil Foundation in Zürich, Switzerland. The Swiss Ambassador to the United States and the World Bank recently requested Steger serve on a committee to establish a foundation in the United States to conduct research on mitigating global natural disasters.

Steger was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1990, and received the Distinguished Achievement Award of the Virginia Society of AIA in 1996. He received the Outstanding Fund Raising Executive Award given by the First Virginia Chapter of the National Society of Fund Raising Executives at its 1999 National Philanthropy Day Awards Dinner.

Virginia Tech shooting

Dr. Steger, along with Governor Tim Kaine, thanks the Virginia Tech first responders at the 2007 football season opener

Steger was President during the Virginia Tech shooting of April 16, 2007, in which 32 people were killed by Seung-Hui Cho; Cho's killings became the deadliest single-perpetrator civilian shooting in U.S. history. Steger called the shootings "a tragedy of monumental proportions."^[1] In the report produced by a state appointed commission to review response by university, local, state, and federal agencies to the unfolding incident focused its criticism on the mental health system which failed Cho but also noted that "senior university administrators, acting as the emergency Policy Group, failed to issue an all-campus notification about the killings until almost two hours had elapsed. University practice may have conflicted with written policies."^[2] Steger, along with several other Virginia Tech officials, has been named a defendant in two $10 Million lawsuits filed by the families of Erin Peterson and Julia Pryde, two of the deceased victims of the Virginia Tech massacre.^[3]

References

1. ^ Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. "Statement by President Charles W. Steger." Last accessed April 17, 2007.
2. ^ "Report of the Virginia Tech Review Panel". Office of the Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia. 2007-08-30. http://www.governor.virginia.gov/TempContent/techPanelReport.cfm. Retrieved 2007-09-01. 
3. ^ http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/201453

External links

• Biography on Virginia Tech's website

Preceded by Paul Torgersen 1993–2000

Virginia Tech president 2000 – present

Succeeded by Incumbent

Persondata
Name	Steger, Charles W.
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	June 16, 1947
Place of birth	Richmond, Virginia
Date of death
Place of death