Landmark citizens project airs

"Just don't tell anybody we wear makeup." Cracking jokes in the Annenberg Center's Zellerbach Theatre seconds before air-time, well-known public television personality Jim Lehrer came to Penn yesterday along with the more than 325 participants in "the poll with a human face," the National Issues Convention in Philadelphia. Imported from around the country as part of the MacNeil/Lehrer Productions' "By the People" project, the citizen-delegates were selected by the University of California, Berkeley's Survey Research Center to represent the views and opinions of the American citizenry. Yesterday's session included the conclusion of the project's Deliberative Opinion Poll and the shooting of a live two-hour PBS special led by Lehrer, featuring the State Department's Director of Policy Planning and former ambassador Richard Haass and, live via satellite, former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski. Though former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was originally billed in Brzezinski's place, a dislocated shoulder prevented her from attending the convention. A cornerstone of the convention was the Deliberative Opinion Poll, or DOP. Polled on their views on foreign policy and international affairs both before and after a weekend of intensive discussions and information sessions on international affairs, the poll represents "what the public would think if it had a good chance to think about it," according to James Fishkin, who first conceptualized the DOP in 1988. Director of the University of Texas's Center for Deliberative Polling, Fishkin coordinated the convention's DOP. "Everything strives for balance and accuracy," Fishkin said. "Surveys are representative but not deliberative; focus groups are... deliberative, but they're not representative, and citizen juries are too small to be representative.... We have a method that attempts to achieve both values at once." As U.S. policy comes under international scrutiny in an increasingly strained international environment, many delegates voiced concerns over the looming conflict in Iraq, the current stand-off in Korea and Americans' awareness of the impact of their country's actions on the rest of the world. "Now that we're on the verge of war and peace, there are important public policy issues," Fishkin said. "The public is traditionally least well-informed, so what they would think would be of interest." Event staff and delegates alike found the experience heartening as well as educational and smoothly run. Penn graduate Mara Bralove of Bralove/Hollman Special Events, the firm that coordinated the convention's logistics, oversaw the process of moving hundreds into and around Philadelphia. "We moved America," she said. Penn students were recruited by MacNeil/Lehrer to perform technical tasks and data entry. While the convention was officially unaffiliated with the University, members of the Penn community were involved as volunteers through their association with Philadelphia Cares or Civic House. "More Americans really do care than I thought," Nursing graduate student and convention volunteer Victoria Lilga said, commending the "realness, niceness and congeniality" of the delegates, staff and production crew. Jay Luxion, a fellow volunteer, one-time College of General Studies student and vice chair of Philadelphia Cares' Board of Directors, was pleased to see "American opinion in depth." "Usually you just see someone stick a mic under someone's nose and demand an opinion," Luxion said. "This was different." Vice President of MacNeil/Lehrer Productions David Sit commended Penn's facilities and services. "The University has been really supportive," Sit said. "We've had great support from President Rodin.... They were extremely accommodating," he said. The final results of the DOP will be announced today at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.