LV debate team earns first
Campus Times
April 30, 2004
Xochitl Garcia, junior, rebuts AJ Vasquez' points on the motion "This
house believes that religious doctrines are more important than women's rights"
in the first round of this weekend's La Verne Open debate competition. Garcia
capped the weekend off with a fifth place win as Best Speaker. First place went
to sophomore Josh Martin and senior Manuel Perez.
The University of La Verne debate team finished on top in the La Verne Open
Debate Championship in La Fetra Hall last Saturday and Sunday.
The first place team was the self-named Universe A, comprised of sophomore
Josh Martin and senior Manuel Perez.
The best speaker award went to junior Travis Raymond.
The preliminary round commenced on Saturday and ran all day. Three teams,
including University of La Verne, Loyola Marymont University and Cal State San
Bernardino, debated issues like the prohibition of divorce, an age limit for
athletes to enter into professional sports and government control of oil.
“It’s a great opportunity to debate with world-view debaters like
the ULV students,” said Scott Rodriguez, director of forensics at Cal State
San Bernardino.
He said this tournament was a great opportunity for his team to debate with
students who are used to debating about global issues.
ULV has won numerous titles at world debating championships.
ULV freshman Rida Fatima said the debate rounds varied in difficulty, with
some easy for the team and some that were more challenging.
Fatima said the hardest part about a debate is when she has to argue in favor
of an issue she is personally against.
Although Fatima felt confident about her team throughout the tournament, other
competitors, like junior Jennifer Williams, were not so sure.
“There was not too much team unity. But I had fun,” she said.
Sixteen teams started the debate on Saturday and eight advanced to the semifinals
and finals round on Sunday.
The debates opened Sunday with the final round because the semifinal round
was eliminated after teams from LMU dropped out to prepare for another tournament.
“Because the semifinal round was eliminated one of the ULV teams was
forced to drop out,” said Ian Lising, instructor of speech and debate at
ULV.
Lising hoped more schools had a chance to attend the competition.
“There were a lot of teams that were interested in coming but couldn’t.
It was just the timing, they are winding down for the end of the year,”
he said.
Despite the turnout, Lising said it was good competition and that all four
of the teams spoke well.
“It was a very competitive debate. We missed their (LMU) competition.
It was unfortunate that they were unable to come,” he said.
“We were shocked that we won,” Martin said. “The results were
based entirely on the final round and we thought we did terrible.”
He attributes their win to many hours of preparation they put in each week
and a lot of teamwork.
“We had to win the tournament or our name wouldn’t be any good,”
he said.
