March 24, 2000
UW hosts Sen. George Mitchell on peace, activist Ralph Nader on dissent, and David Broder and Tim Eyman on ballot initiatives
The University of Washington opens its spring quarter welcoming a trio of prominent national voices in public policy: former Sen. George Mitchell, activist Ralph Nader and journalist David Broder.
Mitchell visits the UW Law School at 3:30 p.m. Thursday (March 30) in Condon Hall to deliver the Bernie and Pearl Brotman Lecture on Dispute Resolution, focusing on his efforts to negotiate peace in Northern Ireland.
The former senator later heads downtown to Town Hall, Eighth Avenue and Seneca Street, to participate in a 7:30 p.m. dialogue on peace sponsored by The Progress Project, an initiative of the UW’s Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs and The Glaser Family Foundation. Seattle Times editorial page editor Mindy Cameron will facilitate the conversation and pass along questions from the audience. The free public tickets have been distributed but the event will be webcast live at http://www.progressproject.org.
Nader comes to campus April 1 for a speech – also sold-out – on civics and democracy. His visit is part of a multi-faceted exploration of “Free Speech, Dissent and Citizen Participation” organized by the political science department as part of UW President Richard L. McCormick’s series of “Conversations About the Future.”
The two-day free-speech event begins the day before Nader’s speech with a 7:30 p.m. March 31 panel discussion in Guggenheim Hall 224 on dissent and the WTO. It resumes April 1 in the same room with workshops on no-protest zones, challenges for future campus organizers and the history of protest in Washington. Nader’s 8 p.m. appearance in Kane Hall 120 caps the free-speech event.
Broder, a Pulitzer-prize winning Washington Post columnist, arrives April 4 to lead what promises to be a lively discussion on ballot initiatives, “Do Initiatives Derail or Serve Democracy?” He will share the Town Hall stage with outspoken I-695 sponsor Tim Eyman. Free public tickets to the 7:30 p.m. event already have been distributed, but the first half hour will shown live on Northwest Cable News.
Ballot measures and their pitfalls are the subject of Broder’s new book, “Democracy Derailed: Initiative Campaigns and the Power of Money.” Eyman is gathering signatures for a new transportation initiative for the fall ballot.
KUOW “Weekday” executive producer Steve Scher will moderate the event, which also features Stephanie Solien, who chairs Washington Conservation Voters. The event is sponsored by the Northwest Forum at the Evans School. Discussion about initiatives also will continue via http://www.debateamerica.org/seattle, a forum for online public policy discourse conducted by the Northwest Forum and Benton Foundation.
Prior to the evening event, Broder also is scheduled to speak to a campus audience at noon in the Parrington Hall Commons at the Evans School. Admission is first-come, first-served.
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For more information on Mitchell, contact The Progress Project’s Janet Looney at (206) 616-1642 or jlooney@u.washington.edu, or on the web at http://www.progressproject.org.
For more information on Nader and the forum on Free Speech, Dissent and Citizen Participation, contact Deborah Hughes at (206) 616-3354 or dhughes@u.washington.edu, or political science department chairman Michael McCann at (206) 543-6493 or mwmccann@u.washington.edu.
For more information on Broder and the discussion on initiatives, contact Northwest Forum’s David Messerschmidt at (206) 221-7642 or davidlm@u.washington.edu, or Mary Donovan at (206) 221-3839 or donovamd@u.washington.edu, or on the web at http://www.nwforum.org.
