While students are well aware of the university’s various sports programs, there is one Division I program that many overlook: the debate team.
Capital has the the only debate program in the state of Ohio, and it competes with programs from all over the country, including Harvard University, University of Kentucky, Arizona State University, and many others.
There are several different leagues within the debate team, which allow for everybody to participate.
There is a Harvard tournament debate, the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA), which is the oldest and most traditional form. It focuses on big policy questions.
There is also National Education Debate Association (NEDA), which emphasizes debating for a general audience.
Finally, there is Lincoln Douglass, a one-on-one competition, which is unlike most other leagues, which are usually two-on-two.
With members in the three leagues, the team’s schedule can be extremely hectic. Some weekends have all three debate styles competing simultaneously in different locations.
The team is kept very busy through out the year, as their first tournaments begins in mid-September and last until April.
In some of their most recent outings, the debate team has had great success. Earlier this year, they traveled to West Point Military Academy in New York, where the JV team made it all the way to the semi-finals. Also, two novice debaters went to Duquesne University where they placed first in their debate.
For Stephen Koch, who has been the director of the debate team for 26 years, the novice debaters are the ones he enjoys working with the most.
“It’s just really fun to see the light bulb turn on! I like to work with the kids on how to flow, how to organize their arguments, how to create a persuasive narrative,” Koch said. “I’ve kind of changed over the years as a coach. I used to be into the super competitive part, and now I’m sort of into the educational part.”
The CEDA debaters, which are usually more experienced debaters, research one topic through out the year and continually take different stances in debates. This year the topic is U.S. Military presence, and whether or not the U.S. should decrease its military presence in either the Great Horn of South Africa, the Persian Gulf, or Northeast Asia.
So far this year, the debate team has been to tournaments at Georgia State University, West Point, Harvard University, and Wake Forest University.
Sirrus Lawson, a senior economic and political science major, is one of the most experienced debaters in the program.
“[I’ve learned] how to research subjects in depth, and how to structure a persuasive, evidence-based speech hundred of times over, which helped me a lot with developing my Capstone speech later on.”
The debate team doesn’t just research and debate all year long. They also invite speakers to discuss different topics. Recently, Andrew Carlson, professor of history and department chair, spoke about the geopolitical and historical background of the Horn of Africa.
“It was really cool for our debaters to get background on the topic they are debating,” Koch said.
Past lecturers have included the mayor of Bexley, who came in and talked about nonpartisan government; the chief transplantation surgeon from OSU, who spoke about organ selling; and a former deputy director of intelligence, who discussed the NSA.
The debate team also sponsors a middle school debate program with the Columbus Public Schools, with which they host two tournaments a year. Before the tournaments, the team goes to the middle schools and trains the students on how to research and debate. This year, the middle school teams will be debating genetically modified organisms.
While many programs at other schools recruit and give out scholarships, Capital is one of the few programs that allows any student to participate.
“You get richly rewarded for this. It is the most elite activity in college. And the people that do it become spectacular,” Koch said.
