A new program using satellite and television will allow political science students at the University of California, Davis, to directly question prominent speakers in Washington, D.C., from the government and other sectors of the capital's political scene. In the program's first session, to take place starting at 1:40 p.m. Tuesday, April 21, in Room 2 of Wellman Hall, students will be able to question Hedrick Smith, a Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent for the New York Times and author of the books "The Power Game" and "The New Russians." Through the "telecourse," the 240 students in political science professor Larry Berman's undergraduate course, "The American Presidency," will have the opportunity to talk with guests in a Washington, D.C., studio. Five of these telecourses will be conducted in April, May and June. Berman's collaborator on the project is Bruce Jentleson, a professor of political science and director of the UC Davis Washington Center, where university students and faculty come to study, conduct research and serve in internships. The format of the telecourse project calls for each guest to first be interviewed by Jentleson, then take questions from a panel of 10-15 students who have volunteered to do extra research on the speaker. The rest of the class will then have a chance to ask questions, and Jentleson concludes the program with a summary. Other colleges and universities will be able to view and hear the program by picking up the proper satellite feed. Another guest confirmed for the program is Republican media consultant Roger Ailes, scheduled for June 9. Ailes is perhaps best-known for devising the "Willie Horton" advertisement for President Bush in the 1988 election campaign. Berman said other likely guests will be members of Congress, the Bush administration and high-ranking representatives of the Democratic and Republican parties. The project is a pilot for other possible applications of telecourses, including the simultaneous transmission of telecourses to the UC Davis, UCLA and UC Santa Barbara -more- 2-2-2 Telecourse Links UC Davis, Washington, D.C. campuses; the development of courses that would rely more heavily on telecourses; and the spread of telecourses into disciplines beyond the social sciences. The pilot program is financed by the UC Office of the President and the UC Davis undergraduate instructional improvement program.