Debater Kate Brooks from the British National team
defends the legitimacy of the Tea Party
during the debate this past Wednesday.
LILY BURBA / THE DEPAUW
Two members of the DePauw University Debate Team took to the stage in the Watson Forum Wednesday evening to debate the two members of the British National Debate Team.
The topic of the debate, as agreed upon by the two teams, was “This House laments the rise of the Tea Party,” with DePauw taking the affirmative position and the British team the negative.
Justine Clarke and senior Alex Parker represented DePauw. Their opponents were Kate Brooks and Alice Coombes Huntley. DePauw’s team is composed of undergraduates, but both members of the opposing team have completed their undergraduate degrees. Brooks received hers from the University of Oxford and Huntley hers from the University of Bristol. For the first time since 1928, the British National Debate Team was composed of two women.
DePauw applied to host the British team through the Center for International Debate and Discussion. DePauw was their last stop on a 7.5-week tour across America, during which the two women debated various collegiate teams. Huntley has enjoyed the experience.
“It’s been really fun seeing this country,” said Huntley.
Instead of judges, the audience selected the victors on Wednesday. Though the debate was hosted by DePauw and the crowd was made up of DePauw students, the British team won.
The event was co-sponsored by the Department of Communications and Theatre and the DePauw Debate Society.
Wednesday’s debate did not follow the style of one particular type of debate. Instead, it was a hybrid that combined elements of parliamentary and public forum debates.
The team usually competes in parliamentary debates. In such debates, competitors are presented with their topic at the beginning and have 15 minutes to prepare for an hour-long debate.
When they aren’t battling the British, DePauw debate team attends intercollegiate tournaments to compete against debaters from other universities as a part of the Department of Communications.
The team holds weekly practices where they participate in mock debates, run drills on different types of arguments and listen to lectures on various aspects of the theory behind debate. They also do many hours of research on their given topic, if they know it ahead of time, and on current events that could pop up as topics for competitions where the topic is a surprise.
So far this year, the team of four or five students has competed at several intercollegiate debate tournaments, including one against Wabsh College as part of the lead-up to the Monon Bell game.
Clarke, the Debate Society president, says that there is still much more to come for the team this season.
The team plans to attend a tournament the first weekend of December as well as some in the spring, including a national tournament, an event their coach is excited for.