November 17, 2009
The
St. John's University Debate Society had a successful weekend,
reaching the final round of the Western Connecticut State
University Debate Tournament in Danbury on November 14-15.
Shreshth Jain and Alisha Siqueira debated in the final round,
defending the motion "This House would make the use of unmanned
military drones a war crime." They debated against teams from the
University of Vermont, The University of Rochester, and Cornell
University.
Alia Bellwood and George Fitzpatrick reached the semifinal debate,
and argued on the motion "This House believes that the developed
world should not hire technically skilled workers from the
developing world."
The team of Timothy Barr and Mohammad Qasim reached the
quarterfinal debate, as did the team of Kamya Chandra and Shreya
Bansal. In Quarterfinals the motion was "This House would
force airline passengers to pay carbon-offset fees."
Individual Honors
Debate Society students also received individual speaker awards in
recognition of the high quality of their speeches. Shreya Bansal
was recognized as 17th best speaker, Kamya Chandra was awarded 11th
best speaker, Mohammad Qasim was ninth best speaker, Alia Bellwood
was third,and Timothy Barr was second best speaker. St John's
students competed in a field of 48 teams consisting of 96
individual speakers at the tournament.
Other students attending the tournament this weekend were Korey
Pace, Babette Roth, Nipun Mahajan, Chris Joyce, Chris Quintana,
Katie L'Esperance, Lauren Horneffer, Misbah Hyder, and Jamie
Williams.
The WCSU tournament was the third-largest tournament held in the
United States this year, hosting over 168 teams in both WUDC (World
Universities Debating Championship) format debating and CEDA(Cross
Examination Debate Association) debate.
Interested St. John's students from any college, major, or
department can participate in the Debate Society without audition,
try-out or fee. They are encouraged to join our Facebook group or
contact Director of Debate Steve Llano at 718-990-5606 or llanos@stjohns.edu.