There's No Debating Recent Tournament Successes

March 15, 2011

March 15, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — A group of ten DePauw University students captured the third place divisional sweepstakes award at the Novice Nationals debate tournament, hosted by the University of Indianapolis this past weekend.  Jent Botterman, Stewart Burns, Mckenzie Curran, Berkley Frost, Sarah Harbison, Currin McCarty, Haruaki Smith, Elisa Sunshine, Tyler Vieke, and Joe Wojda debated teams from across the nation.  All are students in the Public Communication and Controversy class taught by Geoffrey D. Klinger '88, associate professor of communication and director of forensics at DePauw.

"The opportunity for these outstanding students to apply skills they are learning in class to actual out-of-class debates against other schools is one of the many benefits that DePauw offers its students," says Dr. Klinger.

The duo of Stewart Burns and Ronnie Kennedy, who are both on DePauw's debate team, finished as DePauw's top entry in the tournament. Burns further distinguished himself by capturing the tenth place speaker award.

The previous weekend, the DePauw debate team took third place at the "Any Last Words" tournament, co-hosted by Indiana University and Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI). At that event, the team of Burns and Jimmy Kirkpatrick advanced to the semi-finals. Kirkpatrick was named top speaker of the tournament, while Burns took the third place award.

The debaters will conclude their season by competing at the USUBP Championships, hosted by the University of Vermont, the first weekend in April. The tournament has more than 200 teams competing from countries all over the world.

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