JULY 8, 2019
The College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences would like to congratulate Dr. David Magleby, professor of Political Science and former Dean of the College on his retirement and outstanding academic and professional career. Professor Magleby taught political science at Brigham Young University from June 1981 to July 2019 and served as the dean of the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences from 2001-2011. Although his last day was this week, on July 1, 2019, he gave his last lecture in December 2018. Department manager Carina Alleman recalled, “The students and teachers lined the hallway and applauded him as he left the classroom that day. It was pretty cool.”
On June 7th, 2019, theCenter for the Study of Elections and Democracy (CSED) also showed appreciation for Magleby by holding a banquet in his honor. A scholarship has been created in his name, and those who will receive the award will be referred to as Magleby Fellows and will receive financial assistance based on academic merit.
The political science department also honored Magleby in an article about him and his accomplishments in their summer 2019 edition of their newsletter, The Political Science Post.The article describes some of the many contributions that Magleby made to the field of political science during his time here at BYU:
“After coming to BYU as a professor, Magleby was named a Congressional Fellow of the American PoliticalScience Association. This distinction meant he worked for a year with the U.S. Senate Majority Leader, Robert C. Byrd. During that year Magleby provided staff support for the leader, focusing primarily on legislation to reform campaign finance.”
“Magleby is the author of several books. His first, Direct Legislation, is considered the seminal work on initiatives and referenda. Along with the other works Magleby has written, he is the lead editor of a series on presidential election finance, includingFinancing the 2016 Election. He has also written several works on issues related to soft money in campaigns. In 1990, he served on a bipartisan Senate task force on campaign finance reform and his book on the subject, The MoneyChase, was published by the Brookings Institution. In addition, Magleby authors a best-selling American government textbook, Government by the People, which, as of early 2019, was in its 28th edition.”
Prior to joining the faculty of BYU, Magleby was a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the University of Virginia. Magleby received his bachelor's degree from the University of Utah and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.
To learn more about Dr. Magleby and his research, watch this video of a lecture he gave as a BYU professor, entitled "The Necessity of Political Parties and the Importance of Compromise."
