Personal Injury Law

Washinton State University - A place where speaking your mind is encouraged - Michael Pollan will be coming.

By Bill Marler, Esq.

I knew it was the economic pressures that public education is facing and not any political pressure that caused the change in the reading of Omnivore's Dilemma and Michael Pollan's visit to Pullman.  The WSU I graduated from and served, would not bend to that kind of small mindlessness. 

It was just posted on the Chronicle of Higher Education blog a few moments ago that WSU is having Michael Pollan to campus and 4,000 of his books, Omnivore's Dilemma, will be distributed.

Food-Safety Advocate Offers to Pay Michael Pollan's Speaking Fee at Washington State University

In the recent case of Washington State University's dropping Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma as its 'common reading' selection for the year, two rationales emerged: University officials said the reasons had to do with the institution's dire budget outlook — there was just no money to bring in a big-name author like Mr. Pollan, they said. Meanwhile, some faculty members and others said the book was dropped because it attacks one of the university's bases, Big Agriculture.Well, Bill Marler, a Seattle-based personal-injury lawyer who specializes in food-poisoning cases and who has become something of a food-safety advocate, is throwing down the gauntlet. 'Hey, Michael Pollan, I'll pay your way to Pullman,' Mr. Marler, a Washington State alumnus, writes on his blog. 'I have my checkbook ready.''So, was it political or was it financial?' he writes of the controversy. 'I have an idea! To show that it was not political, I will pay to get Mr. Pollan to Pullman and find a place for him to speak — I'll even introduce him. My hope is that it was not political.'Debra Townsend, a spokeswoman for the university, says that Elson S. Floyd, the university's president, talked to Mr. Marler over the phone this afternoon and has decided to accept his offer.

GO GOUGS!

Full post as published by Marler Blog on May 27, 2009 (boomark / email).