Then Michigan Attorney General Frank Kelley, left, and David Poulson, in 1982. Image: Jerry Morton
By DAVID POULSON
LANSING — Almost 39 years ago, Attorney General Frank Kelley visited my journalism class at Michigan State University to explain government access laws.
Kelley often dropped by news organizations to give tutorials on the Open Meetings and Freedom of Information acts. Such visits garnered the favorable local news coverage he coveted.
Me? I wasn’t looking for a softball story when he extended his visits to students. I planned to use my rare shot at meeting a high state official to hit him hard about something big and controversial.
Barbara Sawyer-Koch
By David Poulson
One of the delights of Michigan State University’s Fate of the Earth conference is the dinner for organizers and speakers the night before.
I always angled to get a seat next to Barbara Sawyer-Koch, a former MSU trustee, who with her late husband Donald Koch, an MSU philosophy professor, endowed this annual conference on sustainability.
It was their support that allowed MSU’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism to help bring top-flight environmental journalists to speak at the event and later meet with our students.
Barb, who died March 6, was an excellent dinner companion. Her interests were far ranging – music, travel, sustainability, international students and a deep love for MSU. They intersected – she spoke knowledgeably about the impact of climate change that she noticed in her travels. And while we did not know each other well, she thoughtfully remembered to accommodate my hearing deficit during those noisy dinners. Continue reading
By Nick Young
We would never ask a musician to take a multiple-choice test to join our band.
Yet, this is how many physics and astronomy graduate programs select students. As a result, we limit the talent that enters our field.