Debate team 12th in world

by Bailey Porter
Staff Writer

A University of La Verne debate team placed an impressive 12th place in the World Universities Debating Championships, beating out Yale, Princeton, MIT and all of its U.S. competitors in the annual tournament held in January in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

The team, made up of ULV sophomore Travis Raymond and senior Andrew Kim, was one of three ULV teams competing against 190 teams from universities around the world.

"It's quite amazing the kind of expertise of the people they're up against, and they were able to not just hold their own, but impress them," said ULV Debate Coach Ian Lising, who is beginning his second year in the elected position of World Council Chairman.

In traditional debate format, but with the added intensity that comes with the culmination of a year's preparation, "Worlds" sets four teams to compete in each round. There are nine preliminaries over the course of three days.

After each round, at least three judges rank and score the teams based on speech, structure and content.

On New Year's Eve, following the preliminaries, the top 32 teams were announced at what is called "the Break."

The win for the team of Raymond and Kim, La Verne Team A, marks the first time in Worlds history that only one U.S. team made it to the Break. It also marks the third time in three years that a La Verne team has reached this milestone, Lising said.

La Verne placed 18th in 2001 and 28th in 2000.

Kim and Raymond did not have any prior debating experience before coming to ULV.

Yet both, "have taken the time out to read voraciously and work so diligently," Lising said.

It is necessary for the debaters to have extensive knowledge and understanding of issues from economics to political science to social issues because teams are given their topics 15 minutes before each round, Kim said.

This need to stay current and well versed in events and issues from around the world while remaining unbiased is necessary for Kim, who considers John Adams a role model for public speaking.

"The art of being a debater, and I think what makes it noble, is that it's not about all the information that you know necessary because a lot of people know a lot of different things," Kim said. "It's about how many different lenses you can filter that information through, how many different viewpoints and perspectives you can force that information through."

Kim applied this same willingness to look at things from as many angles as possible as he and the rest of the ULV debaters toured Stellenbosch and neighboring Cape Town when the grueling days of the championships ended.

He said the ability to witness the culture and landscape, but also the poverty of a country, is a way of adding lenses to his ever expanding and shaping world outlook.

"Africa is a land of contrast," said fellow ULV debater Nathan Baca.

"You can see wonderful natural beauty. You can see that the law says that people should have an equal chance, but you're reminded that even though the laws change, society takes a while to change with it," he said.

La Verne Team B of Nathan Baca, senior, and Juan Garcia, senior, placed 74th, and La Verne Team C of Elissa Salas, junior, and Nikkia Williams, senior took 163rd place at Worlds.

Additionally Senior Jennifer Contreras was selected as an Octofinal Adjudicator, placing her among the top 40 of over 200 judges for Worlds.

In the Grand Final, the University of Cambridge took the championship.