Hobart and William Smith Colleges

3 October 2011 Colleges Dominate at Debate Invitational

The HWS Debate Team started off the season with a dominating performance at the Rochester Invitational this past weekend.

Gerald Buzz Klinger 12 and William McConnell 12 were consistently the top-ranked team out of more than 50 teams from across the region. In preliminary competition, they won five out of six of the debates about topics ranging from the uprisings in the Middle East to affirmative action programs in western liberal democracies. In elimination rounds, the duo beat teams from Cornell, St. Johns, University of Vermont, and Grove City on their way to winning the entire tournament.

In addition, McConnell won top honors for being the best individual speaker at the entire competition, as determined by cumulative judge scores of each speech. Klinger was the third-place individual speaker overall, and Emma Lowenberg 13 was the third- ranked novice speaker.

Meanwhile, Anna Dorman 14 and Thomas Luly 12 made it to the semifinal rounds, beating teams from Cornell and University of Vermont in the quarterfinal round which was about whether lifetime tenure for Supreme Court justices should be removed. Aboubacar Okeke-Diagne 15 and Lowenberg also competed in novice finals which were about mandatory voting laws in democracies.

Additionally, Sarah Ford 15 and Patricia Franklin 15 had a strong showing in the novice bracket. HWS Debaters Scott Davis 15, Marjorie Mitchell 14, Chavon Thomas 15, and Danielle Stokel 15 performed well as judges in some competitive rounds.

Our team continues to do amazingly well this year, says Assistant Professor of Philosophy and debate coach Eric Barnes. This weekend was important, not just because our top team won the tournament, but even more because of the impressive results from our newer debaters.

The HWS Debate team competes in frequent tournaments in the Northeast, as well as in national and international tournaments each year. Klinger and McConnell will represent HWS this year at the World Championships in Manila, Phillipines.

Those interested in joining the debate team should contact the teams vice president Anna Dorman at anna.dorman@hws.edu or recruitment officer Andrew Wynkoop at andrew.wynkoop@hws.edu. Students are welcome to join at any point during the year. The team practices on Mondays at 7 p.m. and on Thursdays at 6:30 p.m.