At the first meeting of the yeor, College Republicans members listen to Mickey Stumbaugh, U.S. Congressional candidate and mayor of Cabot. speak Sept. 15. During the meeting, free pizzo and club T-shirts were available to be purchased. ·Jollalhnn Lindsay Pi Kappa Delta strives to change along with format The 10 members ofHarding's debate team, Pi Kappa Delta, said 2005 was an eventful year for them as they dealt with situations such as changes in debate tourna– ments, each member's personal beliefs and learn ing to adjust to group dynamics. Senior Kyle Johns, a political science major and vice president of the debate team, said (he number of teams in the South had declined so much the team had to travel farther than they had in past years for competitions. "We've noticed achange inmesomhcrn region circuit," Johns said. "We have to go a lot further to compete; last criminal ~l\iJ~fro©®associalion year there weren't any tournaments in Arkansas." D r. Pat G arner, professor of oral communication, team coach and direc[Or of forensics, had coached the team since 1972. He said rhe changes had not only been in the Somh, bur university debate had changed styles in the last 10 years. "1lle nature of debate has changed ," Garner said. "We used (0 be severely at a disadvantage because of budget concerns, bur with the new style ofdebate, the student needs a very wide range ofcurrent events and philosophical issues because there is no research before debates. The debater must call upon [thel knowledge of what [he knows] in the world." Garner said that the new type ofdebate was better for Harding students because ofstiffcompeti tion with limitless ex penses. "It levels the playing field a lot more," he said. "There's no way we are going to be able to field rhe same budget as H arvard, University ofTexas or Vanderbilt, whom we have debated before" Because finances did nOt control rhe competitions as much as they had in the past, the debate team had nOt o nly improved its skills, but rh e team had also improved its scores in tournaments. " \'(fe had three of the rop 16 teams," Garner said. "That was extremely good fo r them (0 do." Senior Amy Shaffer, president of the debate team, said the competition did nOt influence her ability to debate. even though there had been opposing views abo u t religio n from othe r teams. Shaffe r said the debates tested her faith because she had to know how [0 defend it. "I believe that God wan ts us to examine why we believe what we believe," Shaffer said. "When I debate, that is my way of looking at both sides of an issue." -Valerie Hendrix Row 1: B. Houston, J. Rose, N. Rampy, P. DeliaPace, M. Nix. Row 2: J. Clissold , T. Williams, R. Conn, S. Haislip, D. Vath. Row 1: P. Garner, A. Shaffer, W. Brown, S. Loehman. Row 2: D. Bowers, K. Johns, R. Crocker, T. Decker. palitical science ' ¥ "-"
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