April 21, 2016 - Seawolf Debate vs. Hart House: 'Consumers have a duty to buy local'

Thursday, April 21, 7 p.m. Discovery Theatre, ACPA

Each spring UAA and Seawolf Debate fans look forward to the much-anticipated spring exhibition debate. The annual event, which has brought teams from renowned universities like Yale, Stanford, and Harvard to compete against the UAA Seawolf Debate team, is known for both its entertainment and intellectual rigor.

Though the Seawolf Debate team's win statistics rival that of UAA women's basketball team, the opportunity to demonstrate their skills against a seasoned opponent on home court is rare.

"We were proud of how our Seawolf Debaters performed in competitions around the United States and across the world," explained Johnson, "but frustrated that the people closest to home-who offer us such terrific support-didn't get a chance to see us in action."

With that in mind, back in 2012, the program invited Stanford University up for an exhibition match. When 320 people gathered in a room meant to hold 200, Johnson knew it was time to expand public debates. Now the event is an annual tradition. This year's match-up pits UAA against Hart House Debating Union of the University of Toronto, on Thursday, April 21 at 7 p.m. in the Discovery Theatre in the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts.

Here's the topic

The topic of the debate, "Consumers have a duty to buy locally," is of particular interest to the Anchorage community. As a growing city with a thriving business community, Alaskans are well known for their locally branded apparel and love of farmers' markets.

Johnson, who picked the topic in collaboration with this year's co-sponsor, Kaladi Brothers Coffee, hopes that this topic will highlight an important element of discussion surrounding Alaska's fiscal future.

"While we talk a lot about citizen's relationship to the government and its fiscal concerns, I think it's equally important to talk about our relationship to the general economy," Johnson said. "When it's just as easy to click the order button from your living room, what obligation do you have to support your neighbor's efforts to make a living and provide valuable goods and services to the community?"

Meet the debaters

Representing UAA will be the team of Sarah Elton and Sam Erickson.

At first glance, you'd think they could be siblings on appearance alone. Sarah hails from Chugiak High School and Sam from Eagle River High. They graduated high school a couple years apart.

Sarah came to Seawolf Debate in 2013 and rose to the top. She was selected to represent UAA at the World Universities Debating Championship her sophomore year. About that time, Sarah's previous debate partner graduated.  Sam Erickson arrived on the scene, and quickly won the title of Top Novice Speaker at the Seattle University Invitational his freshman year.

These two are a debate match made in heaven, and together made waves on the national debate circuit. This past March, they won the Western Regional Championships. On April 11, they returned from the 2016 U.S. Universities Debating Championship where their finish in semifinals earned them a spot among the Top Eight teams in the nation, knocking out teams from Yale and Cornell universities along the way.

Representing Hart House Debating Union, from the University of Toronto, is the team of Aislin Flynn and Alexandra Sundarsingh. Aislin and Alexandra, or Lex as friends call her, are formidable opponents. They won the 2015 Yale Intervarsity and made it to the quarterfinal round of the 2016 World Universities Debating Championship.

When asked about their competitors' likely strategy for this debate, Erickson commented, "They're Canadian, so they do their deconstruction first, which is kind of weird."

Deconstruction is the process of taking apart the opposing team's arguments before building your own. Erickson explained that though the metric for adjudication is similar across the globe, stylistic differences in organization and manner are pronounced.

Learning to listen for and respond to those differences is one of the many challenges UAA debaters face when competing in an international format. "I know Lex is writing her thesis on international cuisine, so she might try to bring in argumentation about local food markets," added Elton, fitting since the topic of this year's debate is whether or not consumers have a duty to buy locally.

And the judges are...

Buying local is the question that will be on Sarah and Sam's mind, as well as the minds of guest judges who will join the debate to provide their insight. Mayor Ethan Berkowitz will be joined by two of UAA's own-Kyle Hampton, professor of economics and Stephanie Bauer, professor of philosophy-to offer critiques, perspectives and congratulations to all the debaters before the audience renders their verdict in a vote to name the champion of the UAA vs. Hart House Debate.

Tickets: Join UAA Seawolf Debate on April 21 at 7 p.m. at the Discovery Theatre for what promises to be an exceptional debate. Tickets on sale for $20-25, $10 for UAA Students, at Centertix.net or by calling 263-ARTS.