Forty teams of college debaters from 12 schools gathered at AU Friday and Saturday to debate a variety of issues, some serious and some less serious, as part of an AU-sponsored event judged by the AU Debate Society.
"Should conscription in the U.S. military be employed?" and "Are Vikings cooler than pirates?" were some of the cases debated. Participants debated for both academic and fundraising reasons.
"The diversity of the topics you experience is incredible," said Ben Frison, a freshman at Johns Hopkins University. "You get everything from the ridiculous to the current."
The theme of the tournament was James Bond. Top teams were given James Bond DVDs as prizes. Previous themes have included Scooby Doo and the Rocky Horror Picture Show, according to Connie Heiss, the AU Debate Society's president of on-campus events and a senior in the School of Communication.
It costs between $110 to $130 per team to compete in the tournament, plus the cost of transportation, Heiss said. Both novice and varsity teams compete in the tournament.
"[The event]'s actually a fundraiser for our debate team," said Jessie Pfleiderer, the AU Debate Society's president of off-campus events and a senior in the School of International Service.
Schools involved in the American Parliamentary Debate Association take turns hosting debating tournaments at their schools each weekend. These events raise money to fund the schools' debate teams. AU typically hosts its event during mid- to late October, Pfleiderer said.
The AU Debate Society doesn't receive much funding from the administration, Pfeiderer said, so the event is necessary to keep the club running.
The debates, held through the APDA, are conducted in parliamentary debate style, which Heiss compared to procedure employed in the British House of Commons. The prime minister begins the debate by taking a position on a specific issue and listing reasons as to why this position is most ideal. The other team does not know what the issue is until it is announced by the prime minister.
The opposition is then given a chance to respond to the prime minister's position. Afterward, each team takes turns responding to each other's points. The teams are then given a chance to make final points. Judges score the debaters' arguments, assigning them point values between 23 and 27 on their overall presentation and ranking the speakers against the other debaters. The whole debate takes 40 minutes.
"You have to know your case and make intelligent points and coherent arguments, but it's also about stage presence and how you present your case," Heiss said.
Because AU hosted last weekend's debate, AU students assumed the task of judging competitions and providing other services to guest schools.
"The AU debate team and other AU students we could recruit are the judges and provide the housing, so you can't compete at your own school," Heiss said.
One or two debate tournaments take place every weekend except for major holidays. The debate season begins at the end of August and runs to mid-April. Cornell also hosted a tournament last weekend. AU was paired up against Cornell so the tournament would have a larger turnout because all the northern schools went to Cornell while the southern schools came to AU, Heiss said.
"The farther apart schools are, the better," she said.
Many students visiting from other universities said they were impressed by the number and variety of people at AU's debate.
"I think that the level of competition was strong," said William Pennant, a senior at Johns Hopkins University. "I thought American was able to strike a good balance" by having many teams from many different schools.
This, however, is something that is not uncommon to see at all host schools, Pennant said.
Other students found both exhilaration and frustration at the debate events.
"It's [a] mixed reaction," Frison said. "[At the] end of the tournament, people are always like, 'I should have won that.'"
Despite these feelings, Frison said, the debates are always a fun experience.
For the AU Debate Society, seeing this event come together over the past few days has been especially gratifying. Many of the schools attending complimented the AU student staff on a smoothly run debate, Pfeiderer said.
"[The event] went exceptionally well," Heiss said. "It's my third year [as] president, [and it's] the largest debate since I've been in charge."
Staff Writer Kendra Garstka contributed to this report.
The Gift of Gab
AU hosted its annual Parliamentary Style Debate this past weekend. Parliamentary style means there are two teams of two debaters who make up the government and opposition sides. The debate teams were paired and then announced for five rounds before only the top teams continued. The government team chose the topic for the debate and announced it to the opposition team, who then had seven minutes to prepare their counterpoints and oppose the government's points while the government spoke. Some of the topics are listed below:
-Advocating veganism -You are the 10th pope and you do something to start a war with Henry VIII -Socrates and whether or not he should escape after he's sentenced to death -Fair trade coffee -Whether the U.S. should make organ donation mandatory -Whether Jasmine should date Aladdin -Abolition of the penny -On making U.S. laws allow gays and lesbians to adopt children in every state -Which are cooler: Vikings, or pirates? -On whether the U.S. should abolish NASA -Should the U.S. send reduced-price grain to the USSR during the Cold War?
SOURCE: Jessie Pfleiderer, debate president of off-campus events and a senior in SIS
-STEPHEN TRINGALI
