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Mona Albertine, an alumna of Mary Washington College, is the new UMW rector. But she still takes out her own recycling at Jabberwocky bookstore downtown.
New University of Mary Washington rector Mona Albertine |
Mona Albertine is a brave woman.
She's volunteered to host a pool party at her home for a crowd of teenagers from Fredericksburg's sister city, Frejus, France. And she can't wait.
"It's been really fun having these kids around. They're great," Albertine said, mere hours before the DJ was to set up poolside on Tuesday. "They end up at our house a lot."
But then, Albertine has devoted much of her life to working with children, and her latest leadership role with the University of Mary Washington will shape the future for thousands of college students.
Albertine, 54, is the new rector of the university's board of visitors. She was unanimously elected to the post July 16 by her fellow board members.
For the next two years, she'll oversee and lead board discussions and help roll out new initiatives, including a move to hire 40 new faculty members and whittle down class size.
She'll also help the school navigate a pivotal period this fall.
Mary Washington has been a university since July 1. The transition was an emotional one for many students and alumni, who were passionate about keeping the Mary Washington College name alive, and President William Anderson came under fire for his handling of the issue.
On July 17, one day after Albertine became rector, the board voted at its annual retreat to keep the college name in the university's mission statement. Some details of its use, however--such as what will appear on diplomas--are still being ironed out.
Albertine's loyalty and devotion to the school may serve as a bridge during the process ahead.
She graduated from Mary Washington College in 1971, after studying foreign service and international affairs. She dreamed of working abroad at an embassy, until an internship in Boston gave her a dose of reality.
"I simply found out that I could not speak enough Spanish," she said, laughing at the memory.
But the liberal-arts curriculum that drew her to the school gave her a wonderful foundation for life, she said.
"As I've gotten older, I've really appreciated it more, what I learned there."
As a student she met and married her husband, Jack Albertine, who was then an economics professor at MWC.
"I was in his class. It was OK at the time," she said. "It wasn't sneaking around. He was 26 years old, I was 20 years old."
They married during Mona Albertine's final semester and settled in Fredericksburg.
Albertine is not new to the city. She spent most of her childhood here, went to high school in Culpeper and returned to the city for college and the years after.
In addition to raising three daughters--Carey, 30, Gillian, 27, and Elizabeth, 18--Albertine co-founded a children's bookstore, Jabberwocky, in 1985 in downtown Fredericksburg.
In between shifts at her store, she's found time to volunteer at her children's schools and sit on the boards of the Historic Fredericksburg Foundation, the Fredericksburg Cultural Arts Foundation and the Community Foundation for the Rappahannock River Region in Fredericksburg.
She's also been an enthusiastic and involved alumna, participating in a plethora of university committees and councils.
But the board is her biggest commitment to date, she said. Appointed in 1997 by Gov. Jim Gilmore, Albertine has spanned two gubernatorial administrations. Gov. Mark Warner re-appointed her in 2001.
She has enjoyed getting to know a new generation of students, and she admires the vibrant campus life that's taken hold.
When she was a student at MWC it was still a women's college, and everyone took off after classes ended for the week.
"It was really, socially, a suitcase school on the weekend. People scattered and went to U.Va. or Randolph-Macon or VMI or whatever. But one thing that hasn't changed is the quality of the instruction. It was small classes, the faculty was really excellent, and that hasn't changed," she said.
She credits Anderson with molding the school into what it's become.
"Bill Anderson's been there for 20 years and I think he had great vision, and I think what Mary Washington is today is in large part due to his vision for the school," she said.
One task Albertine will face as rector is the promotion of the university's new hiring program, called "15 to 1."
The goal is to eventually hire 40 new faculty members to shrink class sizes back down to a 15-to-1 student-faculty ratio. Currently, the average ratio is 17-to-1 college-wide, but it is higher in departments with popular majors, such as business.
Part of the campaign will entail raising money for endowed faculty positions.
"We want to keep that strong faculty, so our new campaign would be to raise money for our endowment," Albertine said.
People who've worked alongside Albertine said she's more than up to the task of serving as rector.
Dori Eglevsky, who just stepped down as rector due to term limits, said Albertine has the skills and talents to be successful.
"I think Mona is a very effective leader," Eglevsky said. "I think she is very thorough and certainly the kind of person who is going to be very attentive to the role."
At the bookstore, Albertine is a pleasure to work with, said Jabberwocky's other owner, Linda Pisenti. She was Albertine's friend and neighbor when the two went into business together.
"She is a problem-solver, and when there is a problem, she seeks to handle it rather than dwelling on the problem itself," Pisenti said. "She's a very hard worker, and there's no one I respect more."
In her scant free time, Albertine enjoys traveling with her husband, who is now chief executive officer of Albertine Industries, a merger and acquisitions firm in Washington.
She also spends time with her daughters, who are still pursuing their educations. Her eldest, Carey, is finishing a master's degree in business administration at Dartmouth College; Gillian is studying at Virginia Commonwealth University; and Elizabeth will be a freshman at the University of Virginia in the fall.
With the official transition to the university name behind her, Albertine is focusing on the positive, and on the future.
"During the past year we were going through the name issue, applications were at an all-time high," Albertine said. "So it certainly didn't hurt in that regard.
"Mary Washington keeps moving forward. It's never been static."
To reach KELLY HANNON: 540/374-5436 khannon@freelancestar.com
