Back in November the Brooks Quimby Debate Council sent several teams to England to compete at the Cambridge University Intervarsity Tournament. Much like the Worlds Debating Championships, the Cambridge IV competition was in the British parliamentary debate style as opposed to the American parliamentary style in which Bates usually competes in. However, unlike traditional British tournaments, the Cambridge IV was an open motion tournament which meant that the topics were picked by the debaters instead of having them provided each round by the tournament. The British parliamentary style involves four teams competing in each round as opposed to two; two on the government side and two on the opposition, all vying for the first through fourth places in each round.
The teams competing were Matthew Marienthal '10 and Jared Levy '09, Ariela Silberstein '10 and Geoff Shaughnessy '09, and Rachel Kurzius '10 and David Kelly '09. Also traveling to Cambridge were adjudicators Alicia Orkisz '10 and Walter Garcia '11, as well as Coach Jan Hovden.
The team consisting of Silberstein and Shaughnessy advanced to quarterfinals at the tournament, placing second amongst all the American schools attending. Additionally, debaters Marienthal and Shaughnessy tied for 40th speaker at the competition out of the approximately 170 debaters attending, while Silberstein won 54th speaker. MIT, which was another American school in attendance, advanced to the final round of the competition and took first place at the tournament.
While competing at the Cambridge IV, the Brooks Quimby Debate Council debated not only against other British universities, but against schools from all over Europe. The success of our teams abroad is really important, because it demonstrates that Brooks Quimby is not only able to compete at home in a style we are familiar with, but also internationally in a style which is foreign to us. Traveling abroad not only marks an opportunity for the team to increase the prestige of Bates on international circuits, but it also provides us a valuable opportunity for our debaters gain experience for the Worlds Debating Championship which occur later that year. Bates plans to continue to promote international competition on the team in the future, and towards that goal we intend to continue to expand our repertoire of British debate styled tournaments to achieve that end.
In all likelihood, Cambridge will be the final time I travel abroad with the Brooks Quimby Debate Council. I have had fantastic opportunities to travel the world competing for Bates over the years; opportunities I doubt I would have had at any other academic institutions. Looking back over the past four years, the places I have been with debate and the doors that have been opened for me as a result of being on this team will be some of my fondest memories of my time at Bates.
Sincerely,
Geoff Shaughnessy