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One of KU's largest teams begins new debate season
The largest KU debate team in the last three years begins its season this weekend with a tournament at Rockhurst College in Kansas City.
Don Parson, assistant professor of speech and drama and debate coach, said KU has 48 debaters this year, twice the membership in 1964, Parson's first year as coach.
The team includes five seniors, 15 juniors, 10 sophomores and 18 freshmen.
THEY WILL ALSO debate in tournaments at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb and Nazarene College in Bethany, Okla., during October.
With a larger budget this year, KU debaters are going beyond their usual 500-mile radius, frequently debating on the east and west coasts.
This year's question is "Resolved: That the United States
Should Substantially Reduce its Foreign Policy Commitments."
PARSON AND James McNish, Topeka junior debater, agreed that the topic this year is "too broad." The negative teams "have to be very versatile" in order to successfully counter an example of challenging teams, Parson said.
Anyone interested can join the team by attending a meeting or enrolling in the course.
The course meets two hours daily for one-half credit a semester. Some of the class time is spent on research. McNish said he spends eight hours a week more on research at the beginning of the year. Later, only five hours outside class are needed.
SINCE MANY debaters are political science majors, the research may complement class work.
Parson and McNish agree that the debaters undertake the work because of its intellectual challenge.
CAUGHT WITH THE GOODS
fend them," Parson said. "That's very necessary in this society."
Unlike high school teams, college debaters are already fluent, so the question becomes "What do you have to say?"
"It forces you to formulate your own ideas and to be able to de-
DEBATERS ALSO WANT to learn the nature of argument—the kinds and their strengths and weaknesses.
Further, Parson said, debate is a valuable tool in learning to organize ideas, and it increases ability to communicate.
Many college debaters, including McNish, are pre-law students. McNish said some law schools are now recommending that time be spent in other fields, because of the trend away from the courtroom and into the office. Parson said however, that most law professors still recommend debate as a valuable background.
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Daily Kansan Tuesday, October 11, 1966
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