Teams from the AU Debate Society took first, second and third places last weekend at its first tournament of the school year, according to Ryan Van Parys, the debate team's co-president and a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Students from the debate society also took the first, second and fourth place titles for individual speaking at the tournament, which was held at Columbia University, Van Parys said.
The teams of Charlie Furman, a sophomore in the School of Communication, and Krista Jorstad, a freshman in the School of International Service; Rafik Salama, a freshman in CAS, and Rachel Urban, a freshman in the School of Public Affairs; and Leah Storer, a freshman in SIS, and Callan Quiram, a freshman in SPA, took first, second and third places, respectively, according to a press release from the debate society.
Furman, Storer and Al Smith, a freshman in SPA, won first, second and fourth places for individual speaker, respectively.
Until this year, AU Debate Society was a small club, said Spencer Siegel, the debate team's co-president and a sophomore in SPA. However, over the summer, Siegel and Van Parys conducted a recruiting campaign, and now the club has 40 to 50 active members.
"We've had a lot of meetings with [the debaters] individually and a lot of practice rounds to show them the style of debate that we compete under, and so we thought that it prepared them much better going into the tournament against other people that may not have had that experience before," Siegel said.
AU Debate Society competes in the American Parliamentary Debate Association, which pits two teams of two against each other to defend a position on constitutional law, foreign policy or common law, according to Van Parys.
Jorstad likes parliamentary debate because debaters get to pick a hypothetical situation or change in policy and defend a side, she said.
"It opens it up for a lot more flexibility of debate, talking about ridiculous crazy things, which makes it a lot more fun," she said.
The Columbia University tournament was held for novice, first-year debaters, Siegel said.
"Some people, they're naturally just better speakers or they can think more logically, and we have a lot of that talent this year," Van Parys said.
They debated one situation similar to the plot of "Back to the Future," in which they went back in time and fell in love with their mothers, preventing their own conception, said Furman and Jorstad.
"Do you go back to the future and live your life knowing that you lost your true love, or do you stay and then get erased from existence?" Furman said.
Although the topic was fun and allowed for humor, it is a legitimate ethical question, Jorstad said.
AU Debate Society traveled to a tournament at Johns Hopkins University this weekend and placed two teams in the novice division. Furman and Storer took first place, while Blaire Ward, a freshman in CAS, and James Kuykendall, a grad student in SPA, took fourth.
The Debate Society plan to attend approximately 20 tournaments this year, Siegel said. It will also host two tournaments at AU, a high school Lincoln-Douglas debate, a one-on-one philosophy debate, and a number of on-campus events. Its first on-campus event is a "Ninjas vs. Pirates" debate on Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the Anderson Honors Lounge.
