Conflict and chaos aren’t usually considered to be good things, but for the DU Debate Team, they are both encouraged.
Audience members are encouraged to bang their fists on tables to show support of a speaker’s point and yell “shame” to drown out an incorrect point in accordance with British Parliament style debate, the most popular format among colleges, according to third-year member Tiffany Wilk, a political science and international studies major from Broomfield, Colo.
On Jan. 29, four members of the 20-person team debated whether professional sports teams should be owned by the public as a fun, public event, according to Wilk.
“Everyone’s involved. We always jump in to create more clash, which is what our goal is,” said Gabe Rusk, a fourth-year philosophy and religion major from Denver who is vice president of the debate team.
Two teams took turns giving seven-minute speeches in which they displayed points and counterpoints, constantly “shushing” audience members and opposing team members who would stand and begin to interject whenever they pleased.
Each of the four debaters began their remarks with jabs at the opposition and their sports allegiances.
“I’m not so sure we can trust a Tom Brady fan,” said third-year student and team president Cody Walizer, a communications major from Albuquerque, N.M., about opponent Nicole Pancheri, a second-year political science major from Shelley, Idaho who wore her New England Patriots jersey to the debate.
Whatever the nature of the event, though, Rusk is always ready to prove his point.
“I love doing debate not just because we can compete, but so we can have a dialogue and hear different ideas,” said Rusk.
At the sports debate, he volunteered to make a floor speech near the end, in which he took the podium with his notes written on a Styrofoam cup.
“We try to do really fun public events,” said Wilk. “Plus [we do] more serious events that showcase our skills.”
These more serious events include working with the Denver Urban Debate League to mentor inner-city high school students for a debate that will be held on Feb. 19 in Sturm. “We are also linking with the DU Democrats and DU Republicans to get in on their [quarterly] debate,” said Wilk.
The debate team also puts on about three light-hearted debates per quarter. On Feb. 12 they will host the “Life After” debate in which four professors debate over which one of them deserves the last seat on the last lifeboat to a new world on Apocalypse day.
Last fall, the team held a Harry Potter themed debate in which four debaters, each representing a different house of Hogwarts, argued whether the wizarding world should alert the “Muggles” of the existence of wizardry.
“The Slytherin guy argued that they should tell the Muggles so that they could enslave them all,” said Wilk.
The Harry Potter debate was one of their most popular events recently, drawing between 60 and 70 attendees, which are mostly students, according to Wilk.
The debate team does most of its serious work away from home.
“We send [members] all over the country to compete against other teams. Last year, we travelled to seven tournaments and hosted one here. This year we’re doing about the same,” said Wilk, who has travelled to New York City, Portland and even Dublin with the debate team. “We send as many people as many places as we can. All 20 members of our team will get the opportunity to travel.”
The team will travel to Vancouver on Feb. 7 and will also send Rusk and Walizer, the “A-team,” according to Wilk, to Vienna this summer for a tournament against international competition.
The debate team will also host their annual tournament in Sturm on March 15 and 16.
“Last year our tournament had a 36-team draw from 12 or 13 different colleges,” said Wilk.
For more information on the DU Debate team, check out their Facebook Page.
