2008 Woodie Awards
ISU Debate Team concludes a year of spectacular achievement
Steven Glenn
Issue date: 4/18/07 Section: News
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ISU has had a debate team on and off since the 1950's. One of the premiere debaters from that era, James Rupp, came back to ISU and looked up the debate team. He found it in shambles and under funded, so he and his wife started a generous endowment to fund the program, which included scholarships for students who participated in debate.
The debate team struggled for many years, and then Sarah Partlow-Lefevre was brought in to coach and turned things around. Now, the James M. and Sharron E. Rupp Debate Society is traveling all around the country making a name for ISU.
The ISU Debate Team participates in policy debates in two person teams. They debate one topic all year and this year's topic was the Supreme Court and some of its past high profile cases.
They attend tournaments across the nation, competing against the likes of Harvard, Stanford, Northwestern, and Dartmouth, as well as community colleges. These students are traveling about 15 times a year, much like a sports team, but with a longer season.
The team debates in the Junior Varsity Nationals, the National Debate Tournament (NDT), and the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) Nationals.
"We prepare four two-person teams who research the topic, learning both sides of the issues, as they have to debate both sides," said student coach Scott Odekirk. " …It takes countless hours to get [the students] ready to debate and beat the likes of Harvard and Wake Forest."
The biggest rivals for ISU are Harvard, U.C. Berkley, Northwestern, and Michigan State.
In the last five years since Partlow-Lefevre took over as head coach, the ISU Debate Team has achieved things that have never been accomplished in this region, including a first round at large bid to the national tournament for the second year in a row.
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