New President is Named
William J. Frawley, dean of the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences at George Washington University, will become the seventh president of the University of Mary Washington.
Mona Davis Albertine ’71, rector of the UMW Board of Visitors and head of the Presidential Search Advisory Committee, made the announcement in February.
“I am delighted to announce this selection,” Albertine said. “Dr. Frawley brings the proper mix of academic achievement, managerial expertise and strong leadership skills to take the University of Mary Washington to new heights of excellence in the 21st century. Dr. Frawley rose to the top in competition with more than 100 highly qualified applicants, including three extraordinarily talented finalists.”
Frawley’s appointment was finalized by the University’s Board of Visitors during its regularly scheduled meeting on Feb. 17. On July 1, 2006, Frawley will succeed William M. Anderson Jr., who has been president since 1983.
“It is a great honor to be entrusted with the leadership of this fine institution,” Frawley said. “I am very fortunate to become part of its century of tradition and especially to be able to work with UMW’s accomplished faculty, students and staff, the engaged and helpful community of Fredericksburg and the region, and UMW’s thoughtful and dedicated Board of Visitors. Together we will move forward into Mary Washington’s next century of excellence.”
The search for a new president at the University of Mary Washington began in February 2005 when Anderson informed the Board of Visitors that he planned to retire in June 2006. Albertine appointed a Presidential Search Advisory Committee to work with the consulting firm of Korn/Ferry International of Washington, D.C. After an exhaustive process, three finalists were brought to campus in January.
Frawley, 52, holds a doctorate from Northwestern University and a master’s degree from Louisiana State University; both are in linguistics. He graduated magna cum laude with a degree in English from Glassboro State College, now Rowan University.
Frawley has extensive experience both as a university administrator and faculty member. In his current position, he is responsible for more than 40 academic departments at George Washington, including the School of Public Policy Administration, the School of Political Management, and the School of Media and Public Affairs. His annual operating budget of $65 million supports 400 full-time faculty, 300 part-time faculty and 100 staff, in addition to academic programs for 6,000 undergraduate and 2,000 graduate students on three campuses.
His administrative experience includes success in the area of institutional fund raising. In three and a half years, he helped raise more than $45 million for GWU’s College of Arts and Sciences, with individual donor gifts as high as $5 million. External funding from grants increased 28 percent during his tenure as dean, including a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education for the Graduate School of Education and a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation for GWU’s chemistry program. Frawley also has developed collaborative partnerships with corporations and with state and federal agencies. All of these collaborations have generated new revenue streams for the institution.
Before joining George Washington in 2002, Frawley served for 23 years as a professor and administrator at the University of Delaware. He has taught English, linguistics and anthropology. He speaks Spanish, French and Polish, and he can read Russian and German. Frawley has lectured throughout the world, and he has held appointments at academic institutes in Hungary, Poland and Morocco.
Frawley has written several books and numerous scholarly articles in his field. He has served on the editorial boards of many academic journals, including his current role as editor of Dictionaries and as a member of the advisory board of Oxford University’s U.S. dictionary projects.
On Feb. 6, just three days after announcing Frawley as the next president, Albertine officially welcomed him to the University at a celebration in Great Hall. Frawley greeted the crowd of more than 300 faculty, staff, students and community members gathered in his honor. He introduced wife Maria Frawley, associate professor of English at George Washington University; son Christopher, 14; and daughter Emma, 11.
He was happy, he said, to take on the difficult and exciting task of advancing Mary Washington, a place he described as having a long tradition of excellent core liberal arts and sciences, and whose administration exhibited foresight by embracing graduate and professional studies.
“It is time to do new things, but we cannot do new things without standing on the past,” Frawley said at his welcoming reception. “There is one person we need to thank, and that is President Anderson. We owe him a great deal of gratitude for all he has accomplished.”
Frawley then strode across the hall to Anderson. With warm words, broad smiles and a firm handshake, Anderson and Frawley wished each other well as the crowd greeted the gesture with hearty applause.