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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PAGE 7A
MONDAY JANUARY 19.2015
Debate team continues success with No.1 ranking
TIM MCGINNIS
@tim_mcginnis
The University debate team has won five national championships and is continually viewed as one of the best debate programs in the country. This year is no different as the team is currently ranked No.1 in the nation.
Recent tournaments in California and Texas had nine different Kansas debate pairings that made it to the elimination round. Partners Jyleesa Hampton, a senior from Overland Park, and Quaram Robinson, a freshman from Round Rock, Texas, took second place at a tournament at the University of Southern California. Kansas also has two individual teams ranked among the top 25 in the country.
"We have a deep team and lots of talented debaters, which is reflected in the national rankings," said coach Scott Harris.
This year's team consists of 26 undergraduate students and nine graduate students. Most of the debaters competed in high school and all competed in the varsity division once arriving to college.
In order to compete at such a high level, Harris said the typical debater spends about 20 hours a week researching, working with coaches, and going over debate strategies. Each debater also travels four to five times a semester to tournaments all over the country.
"The average successful debater treats it like a part-time job" Harris said.
Although the team spends a lot of time traveling and practicing for debate, many of the team members are involved in other organizations and extracurricular activities such as Greek Life and student government.
"Some of them hold part-time jobs and a lot of them
coach high school debate teams," Harris said. "They tend to be very active students."
Harris said in order to deal
"We have a deep team and lots of talented debaters, which is reflected in the national rankings."
SCOTT HARRIS Debate team coach
with the stress of debate, school and work, the team plays pickup basketball games and goes bowling on Sunday nights. Some members of the team were able to attend a Kansas basketball game while they were away at a tournament in Waco, Texas.
Debate team vice president Ciera Foreman, a senior from Overland Park, said all members of the team are close and do their best to
schedule team activities when they travel to tournaments. She said at a tournament in California a lot of the team went to Huntington beach after competing. Foreman said they also have a team Christmas party and an end-of-the-year picnic.
"KU is known by other debate teams as the team that is really close, which is unique because it's not like that at a lot of other schools," Foreman said.
These debate topics are assigned to each debate program at every college. Throughout the year each tournament will consist of debates arguing different aspects of the assigned topics.
Prior to the fall debating season, each school votes for a specific topic they would like to debate and the winning topic is then used throughout the entire year.
Edited by Cecilia Cho
2015 Debate Topic:
The United States should legalize all or nearly all of the following in the United States:
1. Marijuana
2. Online gambling
3. Physician-assisted suicide
4. Prostitution
5. The sale of human organs
KU Public Safety Office to receive new body cameras
KATHERINE HARTLEY
@KansanNews
This year, every officer at the KU Public Safety Office will be equipped with his or her own body camera, due to an allocation of funds by the Student Senate's Safety Advisory Board.
The funds allow for an additional 16 cameras for the force, bringing the total number of cameras to 24.
The Public Safety Office has had a smaller set of eight cameras since August 2014, each costing $900. At the beginning of this school year, Chief of Police Ralph Oliver said the goal in using the body cameras was to
have an accurate record of what occurs, and to allow for training of officers on the types of encounters and behaviors that are acceptable when dealing with the community. Since then the body cameras have come in use with certain cases.
"We have had cases where the city prosecutor and the district attorney's office has asked for the footage the officer recorded on the body worn camera," said Captain James Anguiano of the KU Public Safety Office.
Garrett Farlow, chairman of the SSAB, said body cameras are another way for students to feel at ease on campus.
on helping students feel safer because they know that the actions that are being taken are being recorded," said Farlow, a sophomore from Tecumseh. "it helps with the professional development of the Public Safety Office and holds officers accountable when doing their jobs."
"It definitely has an effect
In addition to more cameras, the department has also added new technology that allows the body cameras to actually connect with the officer's car and dashboard camera, which have been in use for 20 years.
"We recently added a Digital Ally VU Link. What this link does is allow the officer in the patrol car, that when he activates the emergency lights
in the car, the body camera goes into record mode. One of the benefits to this feature is that both cameras are
"It helps with the professional development of the Public Safety Office and holds officers accountable when doing their jobs."
GARRETT FARLOW
SSAB chairman
Farlow said he believes the biggest takeaway from all this is that each officer will now have and be responsible for their own camera, as opposed to the handful that were shared when the department began using them five months ago.
recording and the officer doesn't have to push each record button manually," Anguiano said.
"We are really looking forward to seeing how it goes," Farlow said.
As for the future, Captain Anguiano said the Public Safety Office is looking into being able to wirelessly download video from the patrol car and into the video storage unit, which will save patrol officers time spent switching out media cards.
The SSAB also has more
plans for campus safety improvement aside from the funding of the body cameras, Farlow said. This includes an expansion of the already substantial network of security cameras around campus as well as a student safety app. The board will be holding a session on Friday at noon in the English Room of the Union in order to get feedback from students on what they want to see in a student safety app.
"We are tasked with responding and evaluating student safety at KU," Farlow said. "It should be at the forefront of the University."
Edited by Kate Miller
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