The debate team finally returned to CSUEB in fall, after nine years without the program. While the club has not attended an official tournament since being established, they plan to compete very soon.

The debate program at CSUEB was cut back in the 2006 academic school year due to the cost of running the program.

“Debate teams cost a lot of money to run,” Dr. Terry West, former coach of the team said.

He describes the most costly parts of the program as being travel and the fees to enter the tournaments.

Ryan Wallace, a current graduate student and CSUEB debate coach, stated the formation of this team was due to, “absence of debate at this campus” to form an outlet for students to channel their energy into something constructive. CSUEB has had a history of an on again off again relationship with debate.

“Not only did this school have a debate program, it had an excellent debate program to the point where they were able to host their own tournaments,” Wallace explained.

When debate was still a program ran by the school instead of a club like it is now, it was completely funded by CSUEB in a similar way sports are funded now. In the prime of the program it had an annual tournament where they hosted schools like UC Berkeley and San Francisco State.

West explained that the most interesting concept of debate is the fact no matter what your personal or political beliefs are you never know what side of the topic you will be assigned. Which sometimes forces people to argue for a side they don’t necessarily agree with making students, “look at things critically from lots of points of view.”

Parliamentary debate is the type the CSUEB team focuses on, it consists of two member teams where one side plays the role of the government arguing for change on a topic while the opposition resists said change and supports the status quo. After all the speeches are completed judges that are composed of coaches from teams not currently competing fill out their score cards and reveal the winning team.

“A debate team is a group of people that are organized around a love of argument… the ultimate goal is intercollegiate forensics which is debate between universities,” said Wallace.

Wallace explained that a debate team is important because of how America is divided in politics, he said that debate is an important skill American’s should have and it should be offered for students to learn. While the debate club is finally in motion, Wallace stated that the most complicated thing about running this club is trying to budget everything.

Although the debate club has yet to officially compete, it has not stopped them from attending practices like the one they attended at Santa Clara University. Normally these events can be costly especially due to the limited ASI funding they received. SCU waived all charges for the club to attend and participate.

Next quarter our debate club hopes to host not only SCU but other local colleges like Chabot during its practices in hope of growing their program. The club is set to informally participate in Santa Clara University’s next tournament in mid-January and they also hope to compete in the Chabot and Northridge tournaments following their debut at SCU.