David Lovell
by Jim Gregory, Professor, History (from AAUP listserv)
I want to take a moment to say goodbye to David Lovell. As all of us should know, David served as Chair of the Faculty Senate in 2008-2009 and served many other years in faculty leadership positions, including the most demanding job of all, as faculty representative to the legislature. His accomplishments are numerous and in ways that most of us don’t realize he has helped make the University a better place. He also served the School of Nursing, where he was a Research Associate Professor.
David has accepted an attractive position in California working for Napa County. But his departure is not entirely voluntary. He is leaving because of the budget cuts. As a member of the Research Faculty, his position was entirely grant funded. A specialist in prisons, prisoners, and mental health, his principal grants and contracts came from the Department of Corrections. When DOC funding was cut, Professor Lovell lost his funding. Now California gains his expertize.
Those of us who have worked with David in AAUP and the Faculty Senate know how much he has done for faculty, shared governance, and the University of Washington. The several years he spent as legislative representative, driving to Olympia daily during the legislative sessions, representing us in hearings, button-holing legislators, explaining again and again how a research university works and why funding higher education is important — how do we begin to thank him for all of that?
Many of us might also thank him for part of our paychecks. When AAUP launched its “Loyal Faculty” campaign to call attention to the gross disparity in salaries that had built up over the years as a result of privileging retention at the expense of everyone else, it was David Lovell who crunched the numbers and produced the report that persuaded the Provost Wise to commit the funds that raised a number of compressed and inverted salaries.
There is a sad symbolism to his departure. Many – we do not know how many — faculty members have been leaving UW as the budget has deteriorated, some for greener pastures. That the former Chair of the Faculty Senate is leaving because the budget crisis has taken his position is particularly telling.
Prof. James Gregory
Symbolism aside, I trust that I speak for all members of the faculty at the University of Washington when I say,
Thank you David. All the best.