MSU DEBATE TEAM TAKES FIFTH PLACE AT NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

4/4/2003

EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State University debate team returned from the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) National Championship Tournament with a fifth-place competition finish, first- and third-place speaker awards and a fourth-place award for the team's seasonal accomplishments.

MSU was also honored as the fourth best debate program in the country by the CEDA Seasonal National Championship, which takes into account the performance of the entire team throughout the year. MSU won the first-place honor last year and in 1996. The 2003 seasonal champion is Liberty University in Virginia.

Held in Phoenix, Ariz., from March 21-24, the CEDA tournament is the largest competition of the debate season. Approximately 175 teams representing 75 colleges and universities competed in eight preliminary debates to qualify for the final 64 teams.

The MSU team of Greta Stahl, an international relations and history junior from Shelby Township, and Dave Strauss, an international relations junior from East Lansing, won seven of eight preliminary debates, earning them the fourth seed going into the round of 64 teams.

In the elimination rounds, Stahl and Strauss defeated the University of Rochester, the University of Texas-Austin, and Harvard University before losing in the quarterfinals to Whitman College. Stahl also received the third-place individual speaker award and Strauss was 15th.

Whitman College would go on to finish second in a 5-4 decision to tournament champion New York University. Dartmouth College fielded the third- and fourth-place teams.

Another MSU duo of East Lansing natives Calum Matheson, a social relations senior, and Joe Siegmann, an international relations and political economy senior, won six of eight preliminary debates and were seeded 10th going into the round of 64. After winning their first round against another team from Whitman College, the duo was upset by a team from California State-Fullerton. Matheson was named the top individual speaker of the entire tournament.

"To be recognized as the best out of 350 of our nation's top debaters is a crowning achievement for Calum's debate career, and is a huge award for the MSU debate program," said Michael Eber, interim director of debate.

Overall, MSU took four teams into the elimination round of 64, including the teams of Anjali Vats, a psychology and international relations senior from Bloomfield Hills, and Aaron Hardy, an interdisciplinary arts and humanities sophomore from Logan, Utah; and Margaret Ryan, an international relations and political theory/constitutional democracy sophomore from Grand Rapids, and Casey Harrigan, a James Madison College freshman from Holland.

The general topic for the debates this year is whether the U.S. government should ratify and implement one or more of several major international treaties, including banning the death penalty, prohibiting nuclear testing, enacting a bilateral arms control agreement with Russia, or involving the International Criminal Court in establishing policies to counteract global warming.

One tournament remains for the MSU debate team this year, the National Debate Tournament (NDT) in Atlanta in April.

"The NDT is considered the most difficult and elite debate tournament of the season with only 78 teams qualifying to attend," Eber said. "Every round in this tournament is against strong competition, but our chances this year are as good or better as other teams to win. We are hoping that an entire season's worth of work will culminate in a triumphant victory."

The debate team is coached by William Repko, head coach, and Michael Eber, interim director of debate.