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Former University of Mary Washington President William Frawley should stop blaming others Date published: 12/5/2007
SOME MEN are perfect jailers of Only the meanest in this community feel no sympathy for Mr. Frawley, who recently pleaded guilty to two drunken-driving offenses committed within 36 hours last April in Fairfax County and Fredericksburg. Yet in a Sunday commentary in The Washington Post, Mr. Frawley painted Fredericksburg, which two falls ago fêted him at his inaugural like an ascendant prince, as the Town Without Pity--or at least UMW as the College Without Pity. Mr. Frawley laments that Mary Washington's governors fired him "with no salary or benefits, no severance, no tenure." Admittedly, this is After his local arrest, Mr. Frawley spent fully six days in the hospital in what seemed, at least in part, an attempt to pull the covers over his head. During this period the board, like the public at large, was a baffled Mystery Theater audience regarding their president's bizarre conduct. Two days after his discharge, as he writes, Mr. Frawley addressed the visitors, but evidently the lawyers on both sides had counseled against a fully candid conversation--criminal charges loomed--and Mr. Frawley made no satisfactory mea culpa. One of those--which would have served the public interest--rather than the circumlocution urged by attorneys--which aimed to serve only Mr. Frawley's--might have salvaged some of the amenities the president sought. "My April meltdown," writes Mr. Frawley, "was of my own making, as I've repeatedly acknowledged and publicly regretted." But the dominant tone of his comments, from his first public peep after discharge to his Post commentary, has hardly been one of humble repentance. On the contrary, Mr. Frawley has worked assiduously to medicalize what in great part was a volitional failure of self-control.
Kudos to the FLS for following up on the inconsistencies and flat out bizarre actions of Mr. Frawley. As a Mary Wash alum, I found Mr. Frawley's column in the Post a disgrace. His attempt to shed light and "explain" the circumstances surrounding his actions only confirmed my assessment that the University Board did the correct thing. I believe they did give him the benefit of the doubt until they began to get the facts. At which point the terminated him. Mr. Frawley's actions speak for themselves.
can explain why it continued to dig into Mr. Frawley's background after he was fired and gone. A little vindicativeness going on here?. I do wish FLS would stop paying attention to this former whatever and address something important, like declining support for public universities, especially in comparison to the Ivy Leagues.
Where did Dr. Frawley get the car that he used to drive from Fairfax Hospital to F'burg at 1am?
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