LECTURE ON PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES SET

The national project director for "Debate Watch '96" will speak at 10 a.m. Friday at Southeast Missouri State University.

Dr. Diana Carlin will lecture in room 316 of the Grauel building.

Her lecture, "Creating a Public Agenda for the 1996 Presidential Debates," is open to students and the public.

At noon, a discussion session will be held over lunch in the Mark Twain Room at the University Center.

Carlin has been a member of the Commission on Presidential Debates Advisory Board since 1987 and is currently an associate professor in the communication studies department at the University of Kansas.

Carlin has researched presidential debates. In 1993, she presented her findings to congressional hearings that focused on the key role of debates in the presidential election process.

She currently travels throughout the nation to promote voter interaction with the 1996 debates.

The program, funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation, is designed to develop grassroots involvement in the analysis and discussion of the debates. Its goals are to motivate voters to organize into discussion groups.

Some of the groups will be monitored by Debate Watch researchers. Those groups' suggestions and opinions about what needs to be discussed in the next debate or on the campaign trail will be released to the news media by the Commission on Presidential Debates.

Debate Watch '96 packets will be available after the lecture.