Westminster University’s debate team met for their introductory first meeting, with around 15 students attending in response to the open invite, on Sept 11 in Dick Hall room 102.
A debate team has been a part of Westminster’s clubs on and off since 1955 but has been inactive for at least three decades, according to Westminster’s newspaper archives.
Christy Seifert, the debate club advisor and communication professor, said that she didn’t know the university ever had a debate team before now.
“This is all new for us!” Seifert said in an email.
Most of the debate team consists of first and second-year students with debate experience from high school.
Emily Obeid, debate member and sophomore accounting and finance major, said she has no previous experience with debate but became interested after hearing about it from a friend. Obeid sat with her friend during the meeting.
Debate Coach Tanner Latham, a Westminster alum, has experience with coaching debate at a high school level and decided to take a collegiate opportunity at Westminster.
“Because it’s my alma mater, I felt desire […] to create something for the college I loved [attending],” Latham said. “The average debate practice is where students come out feeling more confident with themselves.”
Latham provided context on how debate practices may look and said they will eventually try to enter tournaments.
“No two debate practices look the same,” said Latham. “It can be very student-directed based on where they feel they need to improve. Sometimes they work on speech topics and public speaking. Other times we practice debate which is more quick thinking and critical thinking.”
Debate team co-captains, of which there are four, said with emphasis that the team is an all-inclusive space.
Asher Dean, co-captain and first-year LMW major said, “I joined debate because of the community.”
“It’s a community that invites people from all different walks of life,” Dean said. “I love how inclusive and diverse in personality debate is.”
Nava Sharma, one of Dean’s co-captains and a first-year engineering major, noticed similar traits of debate.
“[Debate] can be fun and it can be for anybody,” Sharma said.
Sharma noticed the new debate team was promoted mainly to the Honors College.
“The Honors College [promoting debate] seems very exclusive,” Sharma said. “It could be better if [Westminster University] promotes [the debate team] so it seems that anyone can join, not just Honors students.”
Co-captain, Mia Strassberg, a sophomore communication major, said she plans to create profiles on social media for the debate team to recruit more students and build the debate community.
“We aren’t targeting any specific majors or Honors,” Strassberg said. “Anyone can join.”
Debate Coach Tanner Latham agreed that debate is for students of all majors.
“[I look forward to] building a well-known debate team and building connections to different industries where [skills learned in debate] come in handy,” Lantham said.
The team discussed how to communicate going forward in their first meeting.
“We should make a group discord!” said multiple students enthusiastically.
The next debate practice is today, Tuesday, Sept 24, at 6 p.m. in Dick 102 and is free for anyone to join.
