Debate team heads to Kansas
Liberty students prepare to compete in upcoming CEDA National Tournament
COMPETITIVE — The debate team traveling to Wichita must learn to tackle both sides of complex issues in order to win. Photo credit: Kevin Manguiob
Unlike any other university, Liberty University’s debate team has won all the sweepstakes from the Cross-Examination Debate Association (CEDA), the National Debate Tournament (NDT) and the American Debate Association Tournament (ADA) each year from 2009-2013. This year, the team will be traveling to Wichita, Kansas, to compete in the CEDA National Tournament March 20-23.
The CEDA National Tournament is a tournament that is open to all schools and is the biggest national tournament of the year. There will be around 120 to 150 two-person debate teams competing.
Liberty is planning on taking one to three two-person teams. Megan Edwards and Vida Chiri will be attending the competition. They have been top contenders all year, and Liberty’s Director of Debate Michael Hall believes they have a lot of potential.
“This year is our best chance of winning the CEDA tournament,” Hall said. “Edwards and Chiri have been our top team this year.”
Liberty debaters will be participating in policy debate, which is the longest and oldest form of debate. During this tournament, they will be debating the legalization of online gambling, physician-assisted suicide, prostitution, marijuana and organ sales.
The teams will be challenged to debate both sides of each argument. According to Chiri, she tries to maintain a Christ like attitude no matter which side she is debating.
“Even if you disagree, it’s about learning all sides of it all,” Vida Chiri said.
In order to prepare for this tournament, Hall has been helping his team prepare new arguments, managing the team schedule and making sure they properly take care of their academic responsibilities.
“To prepare for CEDA, we have a mix of doing things that help us get better so we are peaking and we get better,” Hall said. “However, we don’t want to compete with school work, schedules and other responsibilities, or they will get burned out.”
This road to the CEDA National Tournament has been filled with a lot of preparation and is something the whole debate team has been working toward all year.
At the CEDA National Tournament, the debate team will compete in two categories — two-person teams and sweepstake. The sweepstake award is based on the scores of the entire debate team.
According to Hall, the debate program at Liberty is able to compete with any other university. This is due to debate being based on the experience of the debater and not the size of the school.
“Our university has been generous with our program, because they see the value and that our students are able to compete with anyone,” Hall said.
As the tournament approaches, the teams are preparing and practicing. At the end of the day, each of the debate team members want to do their best and represent the true spirit of debate.
“Debate isn’t what people think it is,” Megan Edwards said. “It has a lot more intellectual rigor. … Debate has much more value and understanding, but not
everyone agrees.”
According to Chiri, it is especially important for the Liberty debate team to maintain a positive spirit.
“These discussions get heated,” Chiri said. “And we need to maintain a Christ like manner, approaching each debate as a way to share the gospel and being open minded and willing to engage in tough discussions.”
Hall said he is excited to have his team represent Liberty at CEDA. He is expecting big things from his team. However, after the tournament is over, he cares only about whether his debaters did the best they could. For Edwards and Chiri, he just wants them to end their debating career strong.
“(I would) love to see Chiri-Edwards win the tournament,” Hall said. “They have had such a successful run. … I want them to come out of this tournament having put an exclamation mark on their careers.”
FROST is a news reporter.