Debaters reap success from student fees

The debate team from left to right: Kinsey Martin, Jordan Innerarity, Alina Dolzhenko, Travis Smith, Elissa Meisenheimer, Alex Warren and Rachel Cook and Dr. Charles Walts.

Dr. Alisa White, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences said President Rod Mabry rewards student organizations for academic excellence. The University’s debate team has a budget of $41,984 according to Student Fee Advisory Committee’s recommendations. The funding comes from collected student fees.

More money means the team can represent at regional level but also travel to national tournaments, White said. Dr. Charles Walts, coach of the debate team said, “the majority of the budget is used for travel expense, however recruitment and research supplies is also involved.”

“Debate is such an academic endeavor. It is training the mind, like athletes would train the body,” White said. “I love debate.” The debate team season runs from September through April. “Debating is enjoyable, and the skills learned has also given me a purpose for my life,” Jordan Innerarity, a senior debate team member said.

The debate team is of parliamentary style with both for and against sides being debated and heard. “Debate is an argument tool that allows the debaters to understand another persons’ view from critical thinking,” White said.

Collegiate debate tournaments allow students 20 minutes of preparation after they receive their resolution about the topic and if their view is for or against. “I was really nervous,” freshman Rachel Cook, participating in her first collegiate tournament, said. “The main challenge was only having a few minutes to prepare when in high school you had weeks at hand.  It has helped with better presentations and more convincing ideals.”

To be on top of their game, Walts said students put in lots of  their time into research and work about current events. “Critical thinking, research skills and communication skills including listening, speaking persuasion and competing under pressure,” White said.

White said she hopes each student benefits from debate and wins, however, the value students learn goes beyond academics. “They form relationships, which are carried through the community, and culture that are a bigger value then tally marks,” she said.

The team traveled to Kansas City, Missouri Sept. 17- 21 for the Tournament held at William Jewell College. The team competed in the national circuit against West Washington University, California State-Long Beach, Washburn University and Texas Tech. “In 14 years of doing this,” Walts said, “I have never had this many things go wrong.  They didn’t do as well as expected but one team did make it into the junior varsity finals, which is pretty good.”

The first debate tournament of the year provided plenty of challenges for the debate team, from losing a seat on the airplane, having to ride a bus to catch another flight, and two of the seven members came down with flu-like symptoms. They got doctor diagnoses and concluded it was a severe sinus infection, Walts said.

On their way back, because of their symptoms, the airlines did not want to let the ill members on the flight for fear of contagiousness. Walts said he had to convince the captain of the flight they did not carry the much-feared H1N1 flu. A storm delayed another flight back and a member of the support staff for the Department of Communication drive to Dallas to pick the team up in a van.

The debate team’s next tournament is October 8-12 at Lebanon, IL for the Lambert International Debate Tournament.