Queens College names Frank Wu new president

New Queens College President Frank Wu. Photo courtesy of Queens College

By David Brand

Queens College has selected law professor and author Frank Wu as the school’s new president.

Wu, a native of Detroit, will become the school’s 11th president and the first person of Asian descent to lead the 83-year-old institution, according to people familiar with the year-long selection process. He currently serves as distinguished law professor at Hastings College in California. Prior to joining the Hastings faculty, he taught for a decade at Howard University, the nation’s leading historically black college/university.

He is a regular op-ed contributor to newspapers and websites across the country and is the author of “Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White” and co-author of “Race, Rights and Reparation: Law and the Japanese American Internment.”

Last month, Wu earned the 2020 John Hope Franklin Award for his contributions to higher education and diversity. The award is named for Franklin, an American historian best known for his 1947 text “From Slavery to Freedom.”

About 18,500 students attend Queens College, part of the CUNY network of schools.

Wu will take over from interim president William Tramontano, who replaced former President Felix Matos Rodriguez after Rodriguez was named CUNY chancellor last year.