Seawolf debaters two-for-two in early season competition

In a performance that demonstrated both the consistency and depth of the current Seawolf Debate team, the UAA debaters made their second final round appearance in as many tournaments at this weekend's University of Toronto's Hart House Intervarsity. Eighty teams attended the Hart House IV, including teams from Yale, Cornell, the University of Queens and McGill. With the exception of the World Championships, this is the most competitive tournament the team will attend this year and one of the two most prestigious regular season tournaments in North America (next weekend's Yale tournament is the other).

Over the course of the weekend, the debaters discussed such issues as to whether Western liberal democracies should conscript their citizens, whether or not Ireland should be united under a single government and whether Native offenders should receive reduced jail sentencing.

After five preliminary rounds, 16 teams advanced to the quarterfinal round of competition. Of those, only four hailed from the United States. Representing Alaska in the quarterfinal round was the team of Akis Gialopsos (senior, international relations) and Amie Stanley (senior, political science). Further distinguishing themselves, Gialopsos and Stanley were the only American team to advance to the semifinal round.

Overcoming tough competition in the semifinal round, Gialopsos and Stanley advanced to the final round where they defended the motion that we ought to prefer an equal society to a rich one. In the final they posted a valiant defense by arguing that our obsession with wealth culture has placed us in an economically precarious position, that our preoccupation with wealth further disenfranchises the poor and minorities and that in principle our society already values equality over wealth-albeit to a lesser extent than it should. In the end, the seven-member adjudication panel determined that a strong team from McGill University in Canada was the tournament champion, although Gialopsos and Stanley received the minority vote, placing them second of the 80 teams entered. Gialopsos was also recognized as the 10th best speaker in the tournament.

The depth of the current team is remarkable, noted Director of Debate Steve Johnson. "We opened our season with a win by Colin Haughey and Michaela Hernandez at the Claremont Colleges tournament in early October," noted Johnson. "This weekend's performance by a different Seawolf team shows that the talent on our current squad rivals any squad in North America.  To put two different teams into two different final rounds on a circuit as competitive as this speaks volumes about the focus and work ethic of our team." 
This week, the Seawolves remain on the East coast so they may attend the Yale Intervarsity competition. For more information, please contact Steve Johnson at (907) 786-4391 or Shawn Briscoe at (907) 786-4354. You may also visit the team's website at www.uaa.alaska.edu/seawolfdebate/.