Photo Courtesy of Pepperdine Debate Team
The policy debate team has been invited to participate in a series of public debates, sponsored by the Cross Examination Debate Association and University of Virginia’s Miller Center. The debates will take place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley on Nov. 8.
Partnered with the Miller Center, which is a “nonpartisan affiliate of the University of Virginia that specializes in presidential scholarship, public policy, and political history,” according to millercenter.org, the CEDA sponsors public debates all around the country.
“It feels good to be considered for this type of event,” said Sarah Stone-Watt, director of forensics. “Pepperdine has made a good reputation, not just for being a good debate team but also for wanting to be involved in public discussions for preparing people to be good citizens.”
Pepperdine will debate alongside representatives from USC, ASU, UNLV and CSU Fullerton, with the sixth and final spot yet to be assigned.
Pepperdine offers two different types of competitive debate: policy and parliamentary. Both forms of debate require that students are paired in teams of two, in which they learn to work together to research, form arguments and find holes in another team’s arguments, according to Stone-Watt.
Policy debate, contrary to parliamentary debate, is a research-intensive form of debate that focuses on a single topic area throughout an entire year, with the topic being drafted and voted on by members of the debate community during the summer.
The debate on Nov. 8 will be a long table format policy debate, meaning there will be three teams of two people on each side of the topic, with some assigned to affirm the topic, while others will be assigned to negate it.
“Policy debaters have to have a piece of evidence for every claim; they have a ton of work they take with them. In this case, we’ll need to reference evidence,” said Stone-Watt.
The topic for the particular debate on Nov. 8 will be: “The United States Federal Government should substantially increase statutory and/or judicial restrictions on the war power authority of the President of the United States in the area of targeted killing.”
Even though only two students, senior Jason Hong and junior Lydia Evans, will be able to debate, Stone-Watt is hoping for support from the Pepperdine community. “We’re hoping the whole team attends and maybe invites some others from the Pepperdine community. Our team will have about 20 people in attendance, but the event itself should be much larger,” she said.
Pepperdine’s policy debate team is ranked second in the National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence. “Our policy team is stronger than it was last year and the year before. Our aim is to stay at No. 2 or rise to No. 1. We also have a more substantial coaching staff,” Stone-Watt said.
Stone-Watt said a key attribute of this year’s team is that they are “passionate.”
“Our students are really excited about what they talk about. When they’re at their best, they are a very passionate group,” she said.
Correction: Oct. 3, 2013
In the Sept. 26 print issue, this article did not specify that it was the Miller Center that is sponsoring the public debates, instead of the CEDA. Students who will be competing in the Nov. 8 tournament have not yet been named. Also, it was Pepperdine’s parliamentary debate team that was ranked second in the National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence last year but hasn’t been ranked this year.
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Follow Ricardo Avila Alvarez on Twitter: @RAvila27
As published in the Sept. 26 issue of the Pepperdine Graphic.
