By Kelly Douglas
While most students were lying on the beach somewhere soaking up the sun over spring break, the University of Louisville Debate Team was busy claiming the third place title in the American Debate Association National Championship.
Sophomore Shauntrice Martin and freshman Deven Cooper paired up for the tournament held at the University of Georgia, and walked away with the third place honors out of 40 teams in the varsity division. Three additional teams from U of L attended the tournament as well. One participated in the varsity division, winning four debates and losing four debates, and the other two teams participated in the junior varsity division.
Martin and Cooper put a twist on things by taking a metaphorical interpretation of the assigned topic — fossil fuels — and turning it into a debate on environmental racism. Martin said the difference between her team’s strategy versus the others teams’ was that her team’s argument had a meaningful purpose and was fueled by passion.
“What we do works,” she said. “We had a true argument and we argued it effectively.”
Cooper said that the team was labeled “performance debaters” because of their unique style and different approach to debating. Director of the Debate Society Ede Warner said their format of debating is what makes U of L stand out.
“Third place is a validation of our different style and demonstrates … that U of L can be nationally competitive with that style.”
Martin added that U of L incorporated various sources of information into their debate aside from article references typically used by other teams.
“What we do is read the article, write about it, try to understand it, give a speech about it, bring a hip-hop song into it so that we can motivate black students, then also have a personal story so that it all ties in together and makes a cohesive argument that anyone can understand,” she said.
This was the first time the University of Louisville had participated in the ADA National Championship.
Jennifer Harris and Ebony Floyd are currently debating in the National Debate Tournament at Gonzaga University against the top 78 teams in the nation.
