King’s Hosts Seventh Annual Empire Debates
This year's tournament attracted competitors from a record 17 institutions, coming from as far away as the University of Michigan-Flint and Duke University.
While other students were traveling the world or relaxing at home during their spring break, members of the King’s Debate Society were preparing for the Society’s largest on-campus event of the school year, the seventh annual Empire Debates. This year’s tournament attracted competitors from a record 17 institutions, coming from as far away as the University of Michigan-Flint and Duke University.
Over twenty students volunteered to set up classrooms, set out food, run ballots, judge, guide teams, and serve as swing debaters. Research coordinator and volunteer director Lydia Dellere (PPE ’19) observed, “It can be hard to get students up before 7:00 a.m. on a weekend, let alone on a weekend during spring break, but we had a small army of King’s students up early to make sure our guests had hot coffee and clean rooms. Our visitors expressed their appreciation for the extra efforts made to make them feel welcome.” A volunteer who was qualified to set up and run the sound system came in early, left to get a root canal, and came back to make sure the sound system was working properly.
The Chief Adjudication team, responsible for setting debate topics and assigning judges, comprised King’s Debate Society president Trivette Knowles (Philosophy ’19), Yale graduate student Eva-Marie Quinones, and Cornell Debate Society President Rubin Danberg Biggs. They set motions ranging from how much mass shootings should influence gun regulations, whether the loser should pay the winner’s court costs in civil cases, whether political parties should take a more active role in expelling controversial candidates, and whether the media should treat minority-centered films differently from other films they criticize. Knowles said, “I was especially proud of our final round motion, whether rights should be based on a divine foundation or a secular foundation, with an info slide from the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the Catechism. This is the kind of topic we want the best debaters to be engaging in with everyone watching.” The final round ended up being between Duke, Northeastern, CUNY, and Tufts, with Duke ultimately taking home the championship trophy. Amherst College won the novice final, which featured a debate on whether economic policies should be made by experts rather than elected officials.
“The Empire Debates are our annual opportunity to showcase the talent and hospitality of the King’s Debate Society and to share our vision for what debate is all about,” says coach Josiah Peterson. “Before the awards ceremony began, I shared how our society was founded with a vision of training students to advocate truth in the marketplace of ideas, and how persuasion that isn’t rooted in truth is ultimately just a power-play and the intellectual equivalent of manipulation and force.” There were several folks nodding in the audience.
Additionally, King’s Debate vice president Katie Caswell (PPE ’20) partnered with University of Rochester student Himi Thasin, who was without a partner coming into the tournament. They first met the Saturday morning of the tournament and proceeded to finish as the seventh place team in the whole tournament. Caswell was tied for ninth place speaker overall. (Except for serving as swing debaters, King’s Debate Society members do not compete in The Empire Debates.)
The King’s Debate Society would like to publicly thank The King’s College, particularly Megan Phelps, Thomas, and Donald without whom this weekend would not have been possible, as well as all the student and alumni volunteers who came out to help: Meric Pope, Eddie Van Zandt, Sarah Hicks, Hannah Herman, Annabelle Ford, Emma Cicio, Lexxie Clark, Iain Coston, Caroline Walker, Koby Jackson, Lilly Suchyta, Megan Waardenburg, Haley Davidson, Jackson Kane, Lauren Marchand, Audrey Cooper, Grayson Logue, Kat Samelson, Aaron Cho, Henry Thomas, and Elle Rogers.