'Firing Line' aims camera on campus

Former Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork and race relations commentator Cornel West will be two of the guests appearing at today's taping of the PBS television debate show Firing Line to be held at the University's Harold Prince Theater. The program, entitled "Resolved: Political Correctness is a Menace and a Bore," will be hosted by conservative syndicated columnist William F. Buckley. The two-hour show aims to address free speech in society. Bork and West will be joined on the panel by syndicated columnist Michael Kinsley; Ira Glasser, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union; Rutgers University English Professor Catherine Stimpson; New York's Public Advocate Mark Green; and Bard College President Leon Bostein. The show will be broadcast on 300 PBS stations across the country on December 13. In Philadelphia, the show will be seen on channel 12 from 9 to 11 p.m. One hundred of the 200 available seats in the auditorium have been allotted to randomly-chosen students. Immediately following the taping, Firing Line producer Warren Steibel said he will tape two half-hour sessions in which a select group of students will ask the panel questions. "I wouldn't normally do the student taping," he said. "I'm trusting the impassioned feeling [on campus] will make it a livelier debate." According to Chris Dennis, director of academic programs in residence, the 14 students who will be involved have been chosen on a nominations basis by faculty and staff. Steibel said the student programs will be aired separately on PBS stations sometime later in December. He said Interim President Claire Fagin came up with the idea of taping a show about free speech on campus. "I am delighted that Firing Line is coming here to talk about this," Fagin said. "Penn doesn't by any means have a monopoly on freedom of speech, but [it has] certainly been a major focus lately."