MSU debaters start season with national debate tourney win

Contact: Mike Eber, MSU interim director of debate, (517) 432-9667 or (517) 214-6435, eber@msu.edu; or Kristin K. Anderson, University Relations, (517) 353-8819, ander284@msu.edu

9/29/2005

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State University’s debate team started its season with a national debate tournament victory – decided in the wee hours of Tuesday, Sept. 27.

The Georgia State University National Debate Tournament, MSU’s season opener, is a major tournament, with 113 teams from 38 colleges and universities from around the country in attendance.

Members of the two-person team that won are James Madison College seniors Ryan Burke of Rochester Hills and Casey Harrigan of Holland, both international relations majors. They were 7-1 in preliminary rounds and won the 11^th and 18^th place individual speaker awards, respectively.

In elimination debates, which began on Monday, Sept. 26, MSU defeated teams from Northwestern, the University of Kansas, the University of Iowa and Dartmouth College. The final round decision, 2-1 for MSU, was announced at 2 a.m. Tuesday morning; the Northwestern team MSU defeated in the final round includes the 2005 National Debate Tournament champion.

“This is a major accomplishment for MSU,” said Mike Eber, interim director of debate at MSU. “Reaching the final four of a major national competition is extremely difficult. The last tournament MSU won  the 2004 national championship  was over a year ago.”

In addition to Burke and Harrigan, MSU had three other teams in elimination debates: juniors James Durkee of Everett, Wash., and Jillian Tietjen of Grosse Pointe; Andrea Reed of Highland Park, Texas, a junior, and Garrett Abelkop, a freshman from Alpharetta, Ga.; and Debbie Lai, a sophomore from Troy, and Caitlin Ryan, a junior from Grand Rapids. Each of these two-person teams advanced to the round of 32. Only one other debate program advanced four teams into the elimination debates.

“MSU is obviously now established as the best team in the country,” Eber said.“Our next tournament will be the Kentucky Round Robin, an invitational tournament where only the best nine teams in the nation are invited.”

This year’s debate topic is: “Resolved: the United States federal government should substantially increase diplomatic and economic pressure on the People’s Republic of China in one or more of the following areas: trade, human rights, weapons proliferation, Taiwan.”