The nursing professor who sparked a dramatic string of he-said-she-said last fall – accusing the faculty’s top leader of trying to “run [Doug] Guthrie out of the deanship” – stepped down from the Faculty Senate on Friday. 
Kim Acquaviva, an associate professor of nursing, left the senate to serve as the associate dean of faculty affairs in the GW School of Nursing. Professors who serve in dean positions cannot sit on the Faculty Senate.
With her departure, the senate loses one of its most vocal members. She claimed to be a whistleblower in September when she accused Faculty Senate ecommittee chair Scheherazade Rehman spreading false rumors that Guthrie, former GW School of Business dean, had sex with employees and profited off GW’s academic operations in China.
She sent a packet of detailed emails and notes to the Board of Trustees that said she witnessed Rehman trying to oust Guthrie. The verbal scuffle made national headlines, but GW’s investigation of Acquaviva’s claims found no evidence, the University said. GW also found anonymous attacks levied against Guthrie to be untrue.
Acquaviva said in an interview this week that those leaks to trustees – which were obtained by The Hatchet – did not damage her ability to work with her colleagues on the executive committee.
“I would not say that my relationships with others on the executive committee were chilled. I will say that any time someone speaks up in a way that is perhaps uncomfortable to others, it can make for uncomfortable conversations and relationships,” she said this week.
Senate members voted Friday to replace Acquaviva with Joyce Pulcini, a nursing professor, on the body’s executive committee.
Rehman did not respond to questions regarding the change and was away from the Faculty Senate meeting on Friday because of travel.
Acquaviva added that she hopes the new position in the nursing school will offer her a new way to share her voice at the University.
“What’s exciting to me is the potential that it gives us as we think about recruiting new faculty and recruiting a new dean. Associate dean for faculty affairs sends a clear message that we really support faculty,” she said.
