University to play host to three prominent speakers

The University of Washington opens its spring quarter with a trio of prominent national voices in public policy - former Sen. George Mitchell, activist Ralph Nader and journalist David Broder.

Mitchell will visit the UW Law School today at 3:30 p.m. 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 will later head 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.

Nader will be on campus Friday 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 Conversation About the Future series.

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 Tuesday 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 and 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.

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. ¶