History
Founded in 1908 and named after the mother of our country’s founding father, the University of Mary Washington (UMW) has evolved from its beginnings as Fredericksburg’s State Normal and Industrial School for Women to one of the nation’s premier, selective public liberal arts and sciences universities, building a rich history of traditions while accomplishing academic excellence. From 1944 to 1972, the University functioned as the women’s college of the University of Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary academic organization, established the Mary Washington chapter in 1971. Shortly after it became a co-educational university in the early 1970s, it was reorganized as an independent college. In 2004, the General Assembly of Virginia renamed it University of Mary Washington from Mary Washington College. UMW is a public liberal arts and sciences institution and is a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC). With an enrollment of about 4,000 students, courses are offered at three campuses (Fredericksburg, Stafford, and Dahlgren).
The UMW mission is: “The University of Mary Washington is one of Virginia’s outstanding public liberal arts universities, providing a superior education that inspires and enables our students to make positive changes in the world. The University is a place where faculty, students, and staff share in the creation and exploration of knowledge through freedom of inquiry, personal responsibility, and service. UMW regards the provision of high-quality instruction as its most important function. Through a professionally engaged faculty, the University supports ongoing research appropriate to the development of student abilities and faculty interests. It especially encourages the participation of undergraduates in research.”
Founded in 1908 and named after the mother of our country’s founding father, the University of Mary Washington (UMW) has evolved from its beginnings as Fredericksburg’s State Normal and Industrial School for Women to one of the nation’s premier, selective public liberal arts and sciences universities, building a rich history of traditions while accomplishing academic excellence.
Even though business courses first began to be offered in the 1970s, the College of Business (COB) was formally created in 2010 after a merger of the Department of Business Administration at the Fredericksburg campus and the business programs of the College of Graduate and Professional Studies housed at the Stafford campus. The traditional residential and largest campus is located in Fredericksburg, VA, a town 55 miles south of Washington, DC and 58 miles north of Richmond. The other two campuses are located in Stafford (seven miles from the Fredericksburg campus) and Dahlgren (35 miles from the Fredericksburg campus). The Stafford campus at one time housed graduate programs although these programs have recently shifted to the Fredericksburg campus.