Union’s debate team finished the season successfully this year, placing second overall March 21-24 in the International Public Debate Association Championship Tournament.
The team competed against 22 schools from across the nation at the University of Arkansas at Monticello. Union was only one point behind Louisiana State University.
Amanda Bennett, senior English and philosophy major who has competed on the team for four years, won the varsity division.
She debated in front of hundreds of people at the banquet.
Bennett argued affirmative on the topic, “The Republican Needs New Leadership” in her final round.
Webster Drake, associate professor of communication arts, department chairman and director of debate, said the team also won the novice season-long sweepstakes for the fifth consecutive year and placed second for the founders award, scholastic, varsity and professional sweepstakes.
Team members also won several individual awards.
- Seth Brake received fourth place and Vicki Searl sixth place in the professional debate.
- Courtney Brown placed sixth and Katherine Burgess received 10th place in the varsity debate.
- Christian Winter was the champion in the novice debate, and Anna Goodman received sixth place and Sam Strickland received 10th place in the novice debate.
Competitors included Louisiana State University at Shreveport, Louisiana College, University of Central Arkansas, University of Arkansas at Monticello, East Texas Baptist University, Sam Houston State University and Witworth University.
Each team competed in eight preliminary debate rounds, and those who won the most rounds competed in elimination rounds, also known as “out-rounds.”
Debaters compete in three divisions: novice, varsity and professional. Team sweepstakes awards were figured by the top four competitors in each division.
- 74 people competed in varsity.
- More than 63 debated in novice and more than 31 in professional.
To compete in novice, a person has to have participated in fewer than 10 tournaments, and once they have done so, they have to move up to the varsity division.
In order to be considered qualified for these two divisions, the participant cannot have a bachelor’s degree; however, for the Professional division, it does not matter if the competitor has a bachelor’s degree.
Anyone can compete in this division.
“A lot of our topics are political, so the political science majors on the team go around and help everyone prepare their cases,” Bennett said.
For each debate, a competitor gets 30 minutes of prep time, which is when a person gets a crash course on the topic being argued. Internet access is provided, which allows participants to google quotes, statistics and other information.
Participants bounce ideas off each other and share information. Sometimes, participants know nothing about the topic.
The team works together during the 30-minute time span to research the topic and come up with solid arguments, with three different points to be argued. Then the debate begins.
“The hardest part of debate is definitely prep time,” Bennett said. “Once I’m in the round actually debating, I find it fairly easy to think on my feet and come up with arguments to refute what my opponent is saying.”
With the national debate tournament ending the season, Drake said he was pleased with the overall performance of his team and in upcoming years hopes to see the team strive to continue to excel and build on its skills.
“We had an excellent year,” he said. “We will continue sharpening our skills, growing together and learning the craft of persuasion.”
