GWU Professor Requires Students to Lobby for Anti-Obesity Measures

George Washington University Professor John Banzhaf has reportedly issued an assignment to some 200 undergraduate students requiring them to lobby their local legislators in favor of measures, such as the limits on sugary beverages in New York City found invalid this week by a federal court, that will address obesity. Claiming that the assignment is fully consistent with the university’s advertised claims—“Your Four Years at GWU Can Change the Course of History” and “Faculty and Students Don’t Just Study the World, They Work to Change It—Banzhaf, known for crusading with his law students against cigarette manufacturers, says he will show, through the students in his Food & Politics class, how “even undergraduates can have a significant impact on public health problems.” See PRLog, March 4, 2013.