The William Pitt Debating Union’s season kicked off with activities in October, each being a smashing success, with local and national wins.
October 3rd saw the conclusion of the Duquesne Invitational, in which new debaters Yasser Bachra and Maria Kilada debated together against several regional powerhouses, including Duquesne University and Pennsylvania State University. At the event, the team earned 4th place and Maria was recognized as the 2nd best speaker in Parliamentary Debate.
On October 19th, the WPDU hosted its first public debate of the semester, the Front-Yard Squabble. With an audience of more than 90 people, the intramural competition featured 8 debaters across 7 rounds. Undergraduate students Henry Anastasi, Yasser Bachra, Santino Balistrieri, Brady Dugan, Andrew Fisher, Maria Kilada, Zoë Smith, and Emerson Sprinkel squabbled about topics ranging from Pittsburgh sports and popular culture to campus policies and areas of philosophical inquiry. In a final round about the death of the author, Emerson walked away as tournament champion.
October 22nd also saw the WPDU engaging in another prestigious public debate, the Marcella Finegold Memorial Debate. This year, the event was co-hosted by Carlow University’s newly re-established debate team. Featuring keynote speaker and Pitt alum Dr. Carly S. Woods (professor at the University of Maryland), the debate celebrated civic engagement through debate in Pittsburgh with special attention to figures who united each program’s history: Marcella Finegold and Marie Hochmuth Nichols. The debate, before an audience of about 50 people, centered on whether private universities or public universities offered greater protection to freedom of speech. To ensure deep research and argument creativity, the WPDU (represented by Henry Anastasi, Santino Balistrieri, Brady Dugan, and Cate Haigh) defended private universities in the debate while Carlow University (represented by Olivia Hannold, Kori Miller, Kaylee Montes, and Emine Turkoglu) argued in favor of public universities. Pitt won both the public vote and a 2-1 decision by a panel of argument experts featuring Dr. Woods, Dr. Tim Michaels (of Pennsylvania State University), and Katherine Macioce (of Wake Forest University). Kori Miller led Carlow University’s side of collaborative efforts for the event.
Finally, at the most competitive tournament of the month, we had six competitive debaters (Santino Balistrieri, McKinley Cherrier, Cate Haigh, Ben Hunt, Sowmiya Raja, and Emerson Sprinkel) attend the online NFA-LD “Missouri Valley College Viking Tournament.” Featuring some of the national league’s heavy-hitting institutions like Florida State University, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and Western Kentucky University, the team had four debaters achieve winning records in the preliminary rounds. Santino was the tournament champion, beating Nik Schintgen (Western Kentucky University) in a close 2-1 decision. Emerson, McKinley, and Sowmiya reached quarterfinals. With this showing, four students have qualified for the prestigious National Forensics Association’s National Championship Tournament.