{"id":12343,"date":"2017-12-21T15:16:56","date_gmt":"2017-12-21T20:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transy.edu\/1780\/?p=12343"},"modified":"2020-06-19T16:29:18","modified_gmt":"2020-06-19T20:29:18","slug":"the-crossroads-of-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transy.edu\/1780\/2017\/12\/the-crossroads-of-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"The Crossroads of Ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Speech and Debate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
To the average person in 2017, the word \u201cdebate\u201d may conjure up groans and eye rolls. Whether it\u2019s politicians hurling insults back and forth, or sports analysts on TV yelling over top of each other, it\u2019s no secret the state of debate in popular culture doesn\u2019t quite harken back to the days of Lincoln and Douglas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But if you want to see debate in its purest form, a group of Transylvania students has been making a splash on the national scene for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
The Transylvania speech and debate team is coached by writing, rhetoric and communication professor Gary Deaton and is in the midst of a remarkable run of success in regional, state and national tournaments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Transy participates in seven or eight speech and debate competitions per year. Speech events include prepared speeches, limited preparation speeches and interpretation. On the debate side, Transy competes in National Parliamentary Debate Association (two-on-two) and International Parliamentary Debate Association (one-on-one).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the team has had success in just about every event you could imagine, it\u2019s the limited preparation events where the students really shine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the draw, they are assigned a topic, and after 15 or 30 minutes of preparation, they give a presentation or debate another team. They are judged in preliminary rounds, and then the top teams are seeded and move on to the elimination rounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Transy has had a team in the top 10 or elimination rounds just about every year since 2005.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most students, once they receive their draw, will get with their coaches, who will often give them their strategies and talking points, laying out exactly what they think it will take to win the round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But not Transy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The team is made up of die-hard conservatives and liberals. It has students who major in neuroscience, religion, political science and biology. It has sports fans, news junkies, pop culture lovers and bookworms. And it has Transylvanians who have studied in the liberal arts tradition and soak up all the knowledge that\u2019s available to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEverybody contributes to our prep,\u201d says junior Donovan Finan, one half of Transy\u2019s current top debate duo. He and his partner, junior Kaitlynne Wilkerson, were the second seed overall in the novice division at the national tournament their first year, and just missed being in the final eight teams their sophomore year in the junior division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We\u2019ve gotten topics we know nothing about, but with the diversity of knowledge on our team and the coaching staff we have, I\u2019ve never been nervous about not knowing enough going to a round,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve used theory from Dr. Dugi\u2019s classes; I\u2019ve used things from cognitive neuroscience when talking about psychology,\u201d Wilkerson says. \u201cA lot of people on the debate circuit are political science or communication majors. Bringing in things that aren\u2019t necessarily part of those two fields lends an interesting hand to our prep and helps make us as successful as we are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With a roster and a budget that dwarfs that of many of the schools it\u2019s competing with, how did these teams manage to build a culture of success that has given them such credibility on the biggest stage?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The answer, if you ask Deaton, is easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur students are being taught at Transy,\u201d he says. \u201cOur coaches were educated here, and our students are getting their education here. Their research, as well as the things their professors talk about in class\u2014it helps immensely that our students are being taught here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Transy\u2019s coaches are all former team members. Assistant Director of Forensics Brian Powell \u201911 earned a history degree from Transylvania and was a national quarter finalist. The other assistant director, Rebecca Radcliffe \u201915, graduated with a biology degree and won national awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have a phenomenal coaching staff that is basically volunteer,\u201d Finan says. \u201cThey give so much of their time\u2014Brian works other jobs, and Rebecca teaches and tutors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nRachel Halliday<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
THE POWER OF LISTENING<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
The greatest debaters aren\u2019t the sharpest talkers or the craftiest strategists. They are the most eager listeners. They are the ones who can go into an argument already understanding fully the other side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Riley Bresnahan started debating in high school because she was \u201caggressively shy\u201d and was so nervous about a biology presentation that her teacher said she would let her sit it out if she agreed to sign up for the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last year she became Transy\u2019s first- ever national champion in the IDPA junior division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI actually found my voice through it,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s educational; it keeps me informed. And for law school it\u2019s going to help me a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bresnahan stresses the importance of hearing all sides of an issue in order to work together to find the best answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDebate in its purest form is not a monologue, but a dialogue,\u201d she says. \u201cTo do it well you must recognize the validity of both sides and be able to weigh those things against each other and allow people to challenge your ideas to come to a right conclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn its truest, most correct form, debate is one of the most educational forces there is because it is a proponent of ideas meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That crossroads of disparate ideas is vital to Transylvania\u2019s mission to develop responsible citizens. It\u2019s why the university places such high value on building a diverse campus. It\u2019s why teaching students to be good communicators\u2014both as senders and receivers\u2014is of utmost importance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe values that debate teaches are incredibly important,\u201d says senior Rachel Halliday, who was a champion in the junior division of IPDA. She cited Transy\u2019s speech and debate team as one of the reasons she came to Lexington from Pittsburgh. \u201cYou\u2019re seeing polarizing opinions from people all over the political spectrum, but they are coming together with the same values of communication, so we\u2019re able to have productive conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The difference between hearing and listening isn\u2019t an easy concept to grasp. ere are non-verbal cues you have to mind. There\u2019s remembering what you\u2019ve heard and building on previous arguments. As Deaton puts, it: Hearing is physiological, but listening is a choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“With the 24-hour news cycle and the polarization of the culture, I think we\u2019re in a time period where everybody just wants to make sure that they\u2019re heard,\u201d Deaton says. \u201cListening generously is a great behavior, and active listening is a key component of that.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Speech and Debate To the average person in 2017, the word \u201cdebate\u201d may conjure up groans and eye rolls. Whether it\u2019s politicians hurling insults back and forth, or sports analysts on TV yelling over top of each other, it\u2019s no secret the state of debate in popular culture doesn\u2019t quite harken back to the days of Lincoln and Douglas. But if you want to see debate in its purest form, a group of Transylvania students has been making a splash on the national scene for years. The Transylvania speech and debate team is coached by writing, rhetoric and communication professor Gary Deaton and is in the midst of a remarkable run of success in regional, state and national tournaments. Transy participates in seven or eight speech and debate competitions per year. Speech events include prepared speeches, limited preparation speeches and interpretation. On the debate side, Transy competes in National Parliamentary Debate Association (two-on-two) and International Parliamentary Debate Association (one-on-one). While the team has had success in just about every event you could imagine, it\u2019s the limited preparation events where the students really shine. During the draw, they are assigned a topic, and after 15 or 30 minutes of preparation, they give a presentation or debate another team. They are judged in preliminary rounds, and then the top teams are seeded and move on to the elimination rounds. Transy has had a team in the top 10 or elimination rounds just<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"\/1780\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2020\/06\/speechdebate_mag.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"\/1780\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2020\/06\/rachel_halliday-810x486.jpg\" "\\"Rachel")