This upcoming fall is a busy time for the Debate Team! Coming up on October 24-25, we have the Yale IV, a British parliamentary style tournament that will serve as preparation for the Cambridge University IV in England in mid-November. Bates plans to send three extremely competitive varsity teams to Cambridge, so stay tuned for updates on the team's performance abroad. We're also looking forward to celebrating Halloween at the Brown debate tournament on October 31 to November 1 as well as the Tufts Pro-Am the following weekend.

Debating at Bates is recognized for its history of both excellence and inclusion, which reflect some of the College's principal values. Recognizing the long-standing of Bates debate is not only important for understanding our team's place in the college's history, but also for establishing our direction and defining our goals as we welcome a new coach onto the team.

The Brooks Quimby Debate Council has gone through a few changes this year. First, our interim head coach Andrea Curtis has moved on and is now working at a non-profit organization in Rockland, ME. In her place and new to Bates College is Professor Jan Hovden from the University of Kansas. While Andrea will be sorely missed, Jan is a wonderful addition to our team.

Greetings, past and present members of the Brooks Quimby Debate Council. My name is Jan Hovden, and I am the new Director of Debate at Bates. I am excited about the prospect of working with the team to both continue and improve upon Bates' long history of success.

It is a much-anticipated Sunday morning. Cars full of high school students steadily flow into the parking lot, carrying droves of kids literally suited up for action. So begins the first tournament of the year. After weeks or even months of planning, the wanna-be lawyers and politicians seem ready to argue their hearts out.

This year's novice class is an incredibly talented and diverse group of individuals, and we are all thrilled to be a part of the team. Some members of Brooks Quimby's newest cast of characters include...

The esteemed Brooks Quimby Debate Council has already held two successful public debates this year. The resolution for the first debate was "This House believes that the national drinking age should be lowered to eighteen." This was related to a petition which several presidents of our peer institutions have signed, calling for reconsideration of the drinking age due to the ineffectiveness of the status quo. After much discussion, Bates' administration opted not to participate in the initiative, but the issue remains both germane and highly contentious on campus. This heated public debate helped us share our talent with the Bates community and recruit a large and capable novice class.

The Brooks Quimby Debate Council saw some of its best achievements in recent memory during the 2007-2008 season. The year started off with a bang as senior Brendan Jarboe and sophomore Matthew Marienthal finished 4th out of over 100 teams at the Harvard Debate Championships in the fall. The Jarboe/Marienthal team dominated throughout the year with breaks at every tournament they attended (Harvard, Stanford, NYU, Clark, Nationals at MIT). Jarboe and Marienthal won Stanford, which signaled the first varsity debate victory for Bates in the three years. The Jarboe/Marienthal team of Bates JM went 5-0 during in-rounds and Jarboe took the top speaker award for the tournament.