IU to welcome debate teams from across the country

IU will welcome a variety of debate teams this weekend as part of the second annual Hoosier Invitational Tournament, a debate competition that will focus on the topic of whether the United States should increase democratic assistance to Arab Spring nations.

The tournament will take place Saturday through Monday. It starts off with seven preliminary rounds that lead to a “March Madness style” bracket until only one team remains.

There will be 47 teams competing from 14 schools. The list includes Northwestern University, the University of Louisville and Vanderbilt University. Approximately 130 people  are expected to attend the tournament, which is about double the amount of people who attended last year.

“The power of the Arab Spring and its potential meant that this community really wanted to be a part of it,” said Brian DeLong, coach and School of Public and Environmental Affairs lecturer.

The teams that participate in these tournaments prepare for months. The topic for the tournament was decided back in July 2011 by the participating schools.

Before computers were invented, teams used to have giant tubs full of information, junior Gabrielle Cherney said. The IU team keeps up on current events, reads journals and books and extracts information from them.

“You have to have a response for anything someone would say,” senior Samuel Owens said.

Owens said the team uses note cards and tries to sum up the books and articles they read into the most important information. The team has weekly meetings and often practices debating.

“The more practice you have, the better you can deliver the day of,” Cherney said.
The debate team was started three years ago after an inactive period that began in 1993.

“We’ve been scrambling to get organized in the last three years,” DeLong said. “The goal is to rebuild Indiana back to a successful program.”

DeLong said the team has about 10 to 15 members who travel to tournaments. The young IU debate team has received lots of support from other universities.

“It started out pretty small,” Cherney said. “Now it’s a pretty great organization.”

The debates last about an hour and a half. In the debates, two teams compete against each other, each with two members arguing their side. In different rounds, the teams argue the other side of the issue.

“A lot of it is about quality of arguments,” Cherney said. “It’s a pretty in-depth activity.”
Team members said they hope they will perform well but are also concerned about the overall success of the tournament.

“Basically it’s just really fun to be able to put your knowledge on the line and stand in front of a group of people and just be able to argue your point,” Owens said. “We’re just hoping to host a really good tournament and people will want to come back next year. As long as that goes smoothly, I think it’ll be a successful weekend.”