Completing their first semester of debate on Sunday, November 18th, the YU Debate Team has succeeded in racking up a record number of trophies, rising quickly to the top of the League. In their recent debate at Fairleigh Dickinson University, the team won a total of 12 trophies, and in their first debate of the season they won 13 out of the 19 trophies that were awarded.
Dan Levitt, the coach of the YU Debate team for the past four years explains that, “typically the debaters who do well, do well throughout the year. There are just kids who are good at it.” A top debater from last year’s team, Henny Bochner, SCW 12’, was a “genius at picking out the right issue to hone in on in order to win the debate,” says Mr. Levitt.
The debate competitions are made up of two divisions: research and impromptu. The research division is based on a topic that is known to the debaters and changes each semester, this semester’s topic Obama versus Romney. The debaters are able to use whatever facts they can gather about the topic and must be prepared to argue both positions. For the impromptu division, there is no material to study beforehand. The debaters are paired up in teams of two and given a never-before-seen scenario with only ten minutes to prepare an argument. Each debater speaks and is cross-examined by their opponents, the winning teams competing in a final round.
Tal Meiri, SCW 14’, is the women’s president of the debate team. The reason she loves debate: you “never know what to expect” when going into a debate. “There are no notes to study and obsess over. The only arguments at stake are the ones you build up and develop yourself,” said Meiri. Maddie Tavin, SCW 15’, a new member of the debate team this year, explains that debate forces her to “organize her thoughts and pick her words carefully,” in order to present a convincing argument in the limited amount of time each debater is given. Tavin has already taken home a second place team award at the most recent debate, with YC partner, Hirshel Hall.
While everything might seem to boil down to winning the debate, winning a debate is not the only way to receive an award. Not only are trophies given to the winning team based on their arguments, but trophies are also given to the top individual speakers based on their public speaking skills and presentation. In this way, debate “is an incredible means of fostering the development of self-confidence as well as strong speaking skills among the undergraduate body,” said Mark Weingarten, YC 13’, co-president of the team. In order to help in the confidence realm, Weingarten tries to pair up the research debaters so each partner will complement the other and play up each other’s strengths. Weingarten himself is one of the top debaters in the League, gaining the 3rd place individual speaker trophy at the first debate of the season, 2nd place individual speaker award at the second debate, and awarded the 1st place team award at both debates.
Although it may seem that YU debaters are at a disadvantage because the schools they compete against – such as Dominican College, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Baruch, and other community colleges – have more time to practice, Dean Bacon suggests “that debate is a ‘natural’ for our students” precisely because of the “foundation of our education. Torah U’Madda encourages “critical thinking, questions and answers, evidence-based thinking and open dialogue.”
Organization and critical thinking are crucial for this competition, and the team has proven to be on a winning streak thus far, with trophies for both the top teams and top individual speakers. With their skills and commitment to the team, the YU debaters have certainly earned their victories. The next debate of the semester is scheduled for November 18th. More success to come!