More members lead UP's team to place at tournaments this year
By Anna Walters
Communication professor Bohn Lattin doesn't know what to do with all the trophies UP's speech and debate team has racked up over the ten years he has served as team program director.
Currently a paper grocery bag in Lattin's office serves as an impromptu caddy, holding a half-dozen trophies he removed from the team's case on the second floor of Buckley Center to make room for a new batch won by this year's team.
Despite the longevity of the program and the tangible markers of speech and debate's successes this year, Lattin is confounded by the student body's lack of awareness.
"A lot of students don't know we exist," Lattin said. "I've had this program for ten, years, and I still have students walk up to me and say 'We have a speech and debate team?'"
Lattin hopes that this year's rise in membership will help the program gain more recognition and possibly more funding. The team currently has 14 members, up from four members last year. With the added numbers, the team has been able to close out entire events and place second and third at tournaments.
"People don't know how well we do, or I think they'd be impressed," said Gena Folts, a senior business and French major. Folts joined the team last year and spent time enticing new recruits with her debate partner Alyssa Williams at this year's student activities fair.
"Size made a big difference because not only is it better for education - I learned a lot of basics I didn't learn last year - but the morale is better;
we're more of a team," she said. "Last year, the four of us were close friends so it was more like friends hanging out on the weekends at a debate tournament."
Due to the team's large size this year, speech and debate has been awarded second place overall at two tournaments and third overall once out of the five tournaments it has attended. Sweepstake points - awarded to the individual or two person team that wins an event, are tallied up at the end of the tournament. The school with the most sweepstake points wins first place.
"We never used to win sweepstakes before because we were two teams," said senior Lawrence Behmer, the team's debate coach. "It's really a good yardstick to measure how well this program is doing." The team also has been able to sweep events this year with team members taking first, second, third and fourth places.
Freshman and sophomores make up a majority of speech and debate. Contrary to popular belief, speech and debate is open to all majors, not just communication.
"Anybody can do it - it's not that tough," Behmer said. "I've never encountered someone who was uncoachable, who couldn't do the event.
Some members initially joined the team for the upper-division elective credit that participants receive, but discovered that debate was personally enjoyable.
"Debating really turned from something I had to do into something I wanted to do," Megan Morris, a senior communication major, said. "I needed one lower division elective and this saved me from taking water ballet. By the end of the first tournament, I really found out how much I love it." Morris chose to remain on the team even after her credit requirement was fulfilled last semester.
Brit Schneider, a junior communication and German major, joined the team this year and was pleasantly surprised by her and her partner's performance in their first debate round.
"We did really well," she said "It was something I didn't expect to have a really big interest in or do well in."
Although most team members get a rush from participating in event, they admit that tournaments can be draining.
"You're lucky enough to be able to scarf down some lunch in the middle of the day," Behmer said. "I still feel we should be considered an athletic team; there's a certain degree of stamina to that. Of course it's not the best spectator sport in the world, unless you're a CNN junky."
The team's next and possibly last tournament is scheduled for March 14 to 16 at Mt. Hood Community College. A lack of funding may cause the team to cut their season short.
"Unfortunately, we're probably one of the poorest teams," Behmer said. "I wanted to go to a tournament this weekend at Willamette, but we're out of money."
Lattin hopes to take the team to a tournament in Great Britain in the future if he can "find some more money."
He also is working with the Development Office and Stephen Rowan, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, to fund speech and debate team scholarships. But for now, speech and debate members can use their experience as a résumé builder.
"That extra line that you put on your résumé that you participated in debate team may be the reason you get a job," Lattin said. "That may be the element that distinguishes you from other job applicants."
Folts uses her debate team status to enhance her marketability as a job applicant.
"I talk about it all the time during interviews," Folts said. "Whenever I have to write an essay (as part of a job application), I always talk about how debate has made me think critically, consider both sides, think on my feet."
Résumés aside, those involved with speech and debate claim that practices and tournaments have improved their overall speaking and reasoning skills. Morris said that after joining the team her knowledge of current events increased. Lattin believes that speech and debate is a relevant supplement to university learning
"The central purpose of a university is to develop (students') critical thinking skills and the ability to articulate ideas in oral and written form, and what better way to develop those skills outside the classroom then the speech and debate team," Lattin said.
For more information about UP's speech and debate team contact Bohn Lattin at lattin@up.edu
