Whitman
Forensics Newsletter
Vol. 11, No. 1, December, 2004
The 2004 Prep Session:
Welcoming the old and new
Policy,
Parli, and Individual Events competitors came back to Whitman a week before
school started in order to get a jump on the coming year of debate. This
year, Whitman debate is larger than ever with 32 students involved
full time with the program. Twelve more students have been involved at least
minimally, making a total of 44 total team members, also a record for the
fall semester. |
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The parliamentary debate people got
to work with their new coach, David Guidry. David covered the basics of
parliamentary debate with the new students who also got to watch a heated
demonstration debate by veterans Scott Thompson, Chandra Carlisle, Chris
Chamness, and Beth Pearson. The experienced students spent the prep session
writing new cases and devising new strategies they could use during the
coming season. Meanwhile, the policy debaters
focused on a topic asking how the federal government can decrease
non-governmental fossil |
Dawn,
Danielle, Hugo (back row), Chris and Steve (front row) at a team meeting. |
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fuel consumption.
Needless to say, this topic is huge because it involves economic, international,
and environmental issues—all of which the policy debaters are expected to be
ready to engage over the course of the year. But the policy side of the program
got off to a great start by producing thousands of pages of evidence and by
having practice debates to get people back into the swing of things. We had several new members join the
team this year on the parliamentary debate and Individual Events side of the
program: Robert Crenshaw, a Kansas City, Missouri native, brings his charm
and humor. Sarah McCarthy hails from Seattle. She had never debated before
but her experience in mock trial and innate skill has given her the tools she
needs to succeed in parli debate. Jeff Wilson, Montana transplant, is a
talented debater who has been in elims at all three tournaments he attended
this semester. Robert, Sarah, and Jeff are also talented singers. Chris
Fryefield, an accomplished high school Lincoln-Douglas debater, joined up
with sophomore Hugo Vargas for a successful semester.
Mike Meredith Alex
Bollinger and Rob Olsen. On the policy side, our recruits
hale to our roots. Andrew Stokes (known as Barnes to Joe Carver for some
unknown reason) came to Whitman from Timberline High School (coached by
alum Thad Blank’s HS coach). Mike Meredith, hailing from the same prep
school as former debater Mike Winnike, joined forces with Eric Chalfant from Oak
Harbor (home of alums Charles Olney and Adam Symonds). Lastly, Curt Bowen
from Centennial high school in Boise, Idaho (the program that produced
alum Ryan Scoville) decided to shake up the debate world through the use
of music in debate. Curt and his guitar, fuse with the rap and mixing skills
of Joe Bornstein from Ashland, Oregon to advocate change on the debate
circuit. Although getting ready to debate is
important, the best part about the prep session is seeing debate friends
again, making new friends, and having some fun. As always, there was a team
barbeque. However, unlike years past, it was on the front lawn of Hunter.
People chatted, enjoyed good food cooked up by Rob Olsen, and threw a Frisbee
around. At one point, President Tom Cronin showed up to share some
kind words with the debaters and to pump them up for another year of success. |
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Scooter and
Bridget, two of the nation’s best!
Andrew and
Meghan, nicknamed “The All American Team.”
Jeff works
on his best Zizek imitation. |
Bridget’s Triumphant Return
Last Spring, Bridget Kustin left
her shabbily dressed, yet extremely successful, debate partner, Chris Gorman,
in order to expand her cultural horizons in India. This semester, she has
returned in full force. Bridget and Scott Thompson (aka Scooter) have been in
the finals of every Northwest tournament they’ve attended—and Bridget was
second speaker at Reed College (run by alum Keola Whittaker), the first
tournament of the year. Although Bridget is no stranger to
success, coming back to debate was a little rocky for her. During the prep
time of Bridget and Scooter’s first practice debate, Bridget asked Scooter,
“What do you call those things you use to write the case?” Scooter replied,
“You mean observations?” “Yeah, that’s it!” Bridget exclaimed. Despite this
small stumbling block, the practice debate went fairly well. Quickly, Bridget got her groove
back. During her powerful speech in the finals round at the Reed tournament,
she didn’t miss a beat. It seemed like she had never left her spot as one of
the most formidable debaters in the nation. Welcome back Bridget! The Gonzaga Tournament is a Success for the Policy
Debaters The Gonzaga University debate
tournament used to be a warm-up tournament for debaters in the Northwest.
Through the hard work of the Gonzaga coaching staff, they have managed to
turn the small scrimmage into a tournament that draws talented debaters from
all over the country. And despite the increased difficulty of the tournament,
our policy debaters were up to the challenge. Mike Meredith and Eric
Chalfant, both first years, made it to early elimination rounds where they
had the unfortunate draw of debating the zany West Georgia team. Ross
Richendrfer and Matt Schissler also made it to the elimination rounds where
they lost a tough debate against the University of Southern California. Ben
Meiches and Jeff Buntin rolled their “Zizek” craziness to the quarterfinals.
Finally, Beth Schueler and Eric Suni, using good old policy arguments, made
it to the semifinals. A great showing for the first tournament! |
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Dave Guidry
is our new parliamentary debate coach!
Joe Carver,
returns as the policy debate coach.
Katie
Imbeau is back for more interp coaching.
Andrew Lum
takes over as our team assistant! Rob Olsen, Andrew Stokes, and Patrick
Carter also help out. Staff: Jim Hanson,
Director of Forensics, Joe Carver, Assistant Policy Coach; David Guidry,
Assistant Parliamentary and I.E. Coach; Andrew Lum, Student Assistant and Intramural
Debate Manager; Katie Imbeau, Dramatic Interpretation Student Assistant; Bob
Withycombe, Chair, Rhetoric and Film Studies; and Thomas Cronin, President,
Whitman College. |
2004-2005
Staff Jim rounded up most of the usual
suspects to return as this year’s staff with a few notable exceptions. Sadly
two of our team members have moved on to bigger and better things. Samantha
Howell graduated last May and went back to Kentucky to pursue a career in
activism and social justice. She was replaced by the hard working sophomore, Andrew
Lum (fondly known as Lum Lum). After two years of coaching, and
four years of debating for Whitman, Brian Danielson finally decided to say
goodbye to Walla Walla and head to the land of palm trees for graduate school
at CSU Long Beach. He was replaced by a policy debate cross-over, David
Guidry. David debated on the policy side of the program from 2000 to
2003. Returning to the coaching staff for
another year are veterans Joe Carver and Katie Imbeau. Joe heads up
the policy side of the program with a little help from alum Thad Blank and
Brian Simmonds. Even though Joe had to endure the personal hardship of
losing family property to the hurricanes in Florida earlier this year, he and
Thad managed to lead the policy side of the program to success early in the
season. Thad is off to Latin America again so Brian Simmonds will help out in
the second semester. Katie, a student coach, returns to offer her vast
expertise in interpretation events. Katie is graduating at the end of this
year but Jim has already announced that Stephen Reed will take her place. If You’re in
Parliamentary Debate Finals, You’re Debating Whitman The parli debaters are rocking the
debate house this semester. At the Reed tournament, Bridget and Scott were in
the finals of the open division; James Hovard and Sarah McCarthy won the
novice division of the tournament. At the Lewis and Clark Tournament, Bridget
and Scott were in open division finals again, Patrick Carter and Stephen Reed
won the junior division, and Cat Posey and Laura Hanson won the novice
division of the tournament. Then, at Pacific Lutheran University, Bridget and
Scott won open division finals while Jeff Wilson and James Hovard won the
junior division. In all, Whitman was in the finals round of every single
division of parliamentary debate in the Northwest they entered in the
fall. Pretty amazing stuff. The Policy
Debaters Hold a Public Debate on Oil Consumption In October, the Whitman policy
debaters decided to put a bit of their topic specific knowledge to work by
engaging the campus community with a public debate on automobile fuel
consumption standards. Coach Joe Carver paired up with first year Mike
Meredith to debate against the formidable team of junior Eric Suni and
sophomore Meghan Hughes. Eric
and Meghan argued that the United States federal government should establish
an industry standard that requires manufacturers to produce cars that average
40 miles of travel per gallon of gas. In the first speech, Meghan contended
that without this reduction in fuel usage, oil shocks will inevitably wreck
the world economy because oil is a finite resource. Mike and Joe argued that
a 40 m.p.g. regulation would be infeasible because such a swift change would
heavily damage the automobile industry and that consumers would not be
responsive to the changes. After the debate, the audience, made up of
students, professors, and other community members, explored the topic during
an open question and answer period. |
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BIGGEST EVER! 44 Competitors, Fall
2004: Alex Bollinger, Andrew Deming, Andrew Hookum, Andrew Lum, Andrew
Stokes, Ben Meiches, Beth Pearson, Beth Schueler, Bridget Kustin, Cat Posey,
Chandra Carlisle, Chris Chamness, Chris Fryefield, Curt Bowen, Dan Shaw,
Danielle Williamson, Dawn Holmes, Eric Chalfant, Eric Suni, Hannah Elisha, Hugo
Vargas, Jackie Jenkins, James Hovard, Jeff Buntin, Jeff Wilson, Jordan Kline,
Joseph Bornstein, Kathryn Bergh, Kern McGee, Kyle Gotchy, Laura Hanson, Matt
Schissler, Meghan Hughes, Mike Meredith, Nat Jacob, Nikita Parekh, Patrick
Carter, Rob Olsen, Robert Crenshaw, Ross Richendrfer, Sally Sorte, Sarah
McCarthy, Scott Thompson, Stephen Reed
Cat
wants to know which pictures of her are really going to appear in the
Newsletter. Whichever ones Jim picks Cat!!! |
Cat Posey,
Chris Chamness, James Hovard. Thanks from
the Whitman Debate Team! The Whitman parliamentary debaters
have garnered a huge amount of success this semester. Hard work and talent paid off for these debaters,
but the result of our success stems from more than just these two attributes.
Our achievements are integrally linked to the support that debaters’ families
have shown us over the semester. The Chamness family put up
the entire team for the Reed and Lewis and Clark tournaments in Portland,
Oregon. As if that wasn’t enough, they also made breakfast and dinner for us
each and every day—and, at the end of the trip, they would send us packing
with treats for each Whitman vehicle. Moreover, it just felt like coming home
at the end of the day. Both the Reed and Thompson
families were very helpful in our domination of the Pacific Lutheran
University tournament. On our way to Tacoma, the Reed family invited us into
their house for a quick dinner stop—where we had enough Chinese food to feed
a small army. Then the Thompson family not only housed and fed over half of
the parliamentary debaters, they also let Jim stay in their house by himself
one day so he could catch up on work and they even went to the store just to
bring him some low-carb food! So, a special thanks to these
families for inviting us into their homes from the Whitman squad. Without
your support we wouldn’t have been able to enjoy the tremendous amount of
success that we have had during the fall semester. Thank you! |
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Fall
Intramural Tournament Biggest in its new Decade This
fall’s IM Contest was the biggest since we restarted the event some 10 years
ago. Debaters argued over the topic “Alternative
Core should be required for all sophomores” while Dramatic Interpers chose
their pieces. Tom Cronin sent Jim
an e-mail congratulating him on the success of the contest as did several
other professors. Top honors were
taken by Nikita Parekh, Dan Shaw, and Sally Sorte in the Interpretation
events. The top 3 inexperienced debaters were Andrew Telesca (First) and Drew
Shoals, Max Hensley, and Sam Booch (Second). The experienced division ended
in a two-way tie for first place between Carl Edwards and Kim
Schlesinger. Taking third place was
Matt Jumago.
Jim—trim that hippie!
Beth--Rhodes
Scholar!!!
Joseph
smiles.
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Pepperdine
Tournament: Awards and More Awards The Whitman College Policy
Debate team made its first trip to the Pepperdine tournament in years a memorable
one. Director Jim Hanson and Assistant Joe Carver traveled six teams to the
Malibu, California tournament. In attendance were Eric Suni and Beth
Schueler, Ben Meiches and Jeff Buntin, Ross Richendrfer and Matt Schissler,
Meghan Hughes and Andrew Stokes, Eric Chalfant and Mike Meredith, and Curt
Bowen and Joseph Bornstein. In Junior division, the team of
Bowen and Bornstein cleared to quarter finals. In Senior division, Ross and
Matt, after going 4-2 in preliminaries, dropped in Partial Double Octo-finals
to Georgia State while Eric and Beth and Jeff and Ben advanced without
debating. In Octo-finals, Eric and Beth lost a heartbreaker to USC while Jeff
and Ben advanced over Long Beach and Redlands in octas and quarters. In
semis, Jeff and Ben’s run ended with a loss to a Cal Berkeley team. In addition to receiving multiple
speaker awards, Whitman was excited to find that Dr Jim Hanson was awarded
Pepperdine’s Coach of the Year award. This is the second such award in as
many years for Jim as he was awarded the prestigious Coach of the Year award
at Wake Forest last November as well.
All in all it was a very successful weekend for Whitman garnering a 3rd
place, 9th place and 17th place Sr. finish and a 5th
place finish in JV.
WNDI 2004! One
of the nation’s premier camps for high school debaters. Whitman’s
Debate Camp Receiving rave reviews, this summer’s camp filled up the
residence hall with over 80 debaters and several coaches from across the
country. Jim notes “It is a lot of work for everyone involved but it is a
great way for our team members to earn money during the summer and it is a
great recruiting tool as high schoolers get a feel for Whitman College and
our team.” The camp is held in late July through August and we’re ready to go
for 2005! Whitman
College Goes to Minnesota with a Rhodes Detour! Whitman College attended one of the
largest tournaments in the past thirty years in Minnesota, home of ten
thousand lakes and the Super Mall. Originally, Bridget Kustin, Scott
Thompson, Chris Chamness, and Beth Pearson were scheduled to compete but, at
the last minute, Beth found out that she had to interview for and win a
Rhodes scholarship instead! Beth’s project for the disabled in the third
world was well received by the Rhodes committee. We are very proud of her! In her place, Alex Bollinger joined
Chris Chamness to debate together along with Scott and Bridget in parli
debate, Alex and Scott were in NFA-LD, and Bridget was in Parli-LD. Alex,
using his keen intellect and skillful charge of “You are crazy,” made it to
the finals in NFA-LD. Unfortunately, Alex and Scott were slated to debate
each other in the quarterfinals and Scott was walked over. Bridget wowed the
final panel in Parli-LD, busting out her French skills to talk about trade
relations with France. The two teams also did extremely
well in parli debate. Bridget and Scott went undefeated while Alex and Chris
lost only one debate in the preliminary round. Alex and Chris made it to the
octofinals and Bridget and Scott made it to the semifinals where they had a
tough debate against a very charming team from Western Kentucky. Overall, it
was a great weekend for Whitman debate although we only got to see six of the
ten thousand lakes.
Eating at
the Party Winter Holiday
Party is a hit again! Hosted by Jim himself, this year’s
Winter Holiday Party served as a vile reminder of crass commercialism, overt
competitive instincts, and gluttonous eating. In other words, the team loved
it! Each team member received a stocking bag filled with candies, pens,
sticky pads, and assorted and rather bizarre toys including a plastic rock
(huh—what was that?). The team’s gift exchange turned into a free for all
fight with arguments erupting over who would get the incense set, the
speakers, poker chips, and then who would win the new and highly coveted
“worst gift” award which went to Matt Schissler who picked a gift of three
smarmy romance novels. Jim was quite pleased with the exchange as he built up
his collection of Bratz dolls. Alum Kristofer Peterson, who was
visiting Jim, joined in on the festivities and provided ingredients for a
vegetarian chili and salad. Jim, of course, retaliated with barbeque beef and
chicken stew. With special guest
appearances by Bob Withycombe, and recent graduate Chris Gorman, the night
was a lot of fun.
Dave, Danielle and Chris enjoy good
times at the Winter Party. |
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Stephen Reed Chandra
Carlisle Hugo Vargas |
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Walker and Withycombe Fund Contributions We are
grateful for your contributions to the forensic team! Generous donors June 1,
2004 through December 12, 2004
include: Janice Berman, Brian
Danielson, Karin Dwelle, Rebekah Foster, Beverly and Robert Handon, Sean
Harris, Scott Jones, Charlotte and David McClusky, Jim Hanson, Kristofer
Peterson, and Robert Withycombe. If
we missed you, please tell us because we do appreciate your support! SEND
CONTRIBUTIONS to: Annual Fund Office; Whitman College; Walla Walla WA 99362. Checks
should be made out to Whitman College with a note that says to place the
contribution into the Walker or Withycombe Fund. |
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Beth talks with Robert Chris
and Sarah smile at a meeting Beth enjoys her coffee. Jeff and Rob try out a webcam. Whitman IE’s Rock!
Just check the results below
and you’ll see dramatic success for Sarah, Andrew, Hugo, Stephen, Cat, Kyle,
and Chris. Add in our new love of NFA-LD; Beth, Laura, and Chris’s Extemp
skills; plus Danielle’s ADS, Patrick’s CA, and Bridget’s Inform. And take
notice of the well received and team sponsored play with Sarah, James, Chris,
Robert, Dawn, Andrew, and Stephen! This team is set to go for the second
semester and to keep our IE’s rockin! |
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Policy Awards BEN MEICHES
AND JEFF BUNTIN: Gonzaga, QUARTERS; Kentucky, DOUBLES, Pepperdine, SEMIS,
Wake Forest, DOUBLES. BETH
SCHUELER AND ERIC SUNI: Gonzaga, SEMIS, Kentucky, DOUBLES; Pepperdine, OCTAS;
Wake Forest, DOUBLES. CURT BOWEN
AND JOSEPH BORNSTEIN: Pepperdine, QUARTERS, JV. ERIC
CHALFANT AND MIKE MEREDITH: Gonzaga, DOUBLES. MATT
SCHISSLER AND ROSS RICHENDRFER: Gonzaga, DOUBLES; Pepperdine,
DOUBLES. Parli Awards ALEX
BOLLINGER AND CHRIS CHAMNESS: Century-Minnesota, OCTAS. ALEX
BOLLINGER AND JACKIE JENKINS: Reed, QUARTERS. BETH
PEARSON AND CHRIS CHAMNESS: Reed, QUARTERS; Lewis and Clark,
OCTAS. BRIDGET
KUSTIN AND SCOTT THOMPSON: Reed,
SECOND; Lewis and Clark, SECOND; PLU, FIRST; Century-Minnesota, SEMIS. CAT POSEY AND LAURA HANSON: Lewis and
Clark, Nov, FIRST; PLU, JV, OCTAS. CHRIS FRYEFIELD
AND HUGO VARGAS: Lewis and Clark, SEMIS, PLU, OCTAS. JAMES
HOVARD AND SARAH MCCARTHY: Reed, Novice, FIRST; Lewis and
Clark, JV, OCTAS. JAMES
HOVARD AND JEFF WILSON: PLU, JV, FIRST. JEFF WILSON AND
ROBERT CRENSHAW: Reed, OCTAS; Lewis and
Clark, JV, OCTAS. PATRICK CARTER AND STEPHEN REED: Lewis and
Clark, JV, FIRST; PLU, OCTAS. |
Individual Events Awards ALEX BOLLINGER: NFA-LD, SECOND,
Century; FIRST, PLU ANDREW LUM AND
HUGO VARGAS: DUO,
FIRST, Lewis and Clark BETH PEARSON: EXTEMP, FOURTH,
Lewis and Clark; THIRD, PLU BRIDGET KUSTIN: INFORMATIVE,
FINALIST, PLU; PARLI-LD, FIRST, Century-Minnesota CAT POSEY: POI, THIRD, Lewis
and Clark; PROSE, SECOND, Nov, PLU CHRIS CHAMNESS: DRAMATIC, FINALIST,
Nov., PLU CHRIS FRYEFIELD: EXTEMP, THIRD,
JV., Lewis and Clark; FIANLIST, JV, PLU DANIELLE
WILLIAMSON: ADS,
FINALIST, PLU KYLE GOTCHY: DRAMATIC, SECOND,
Nov., Lewis and Clark LAURA HANSON: Extemp, FIRST,
Lewis and Clark PATRICK CARTER: CA, FIRST, Lewis and Clark ROB OLSEN: NFA-LD, FIRST, PLU ROBERT CRENSHAW: NFA-LD, SEMIS, Reed SARAH MCCARTHY: DRAMATIC, FIRST,
Nov., Lewis and Clark, SCOTT THOMPSON: NFA-LD, FIRST,
Reed; QUARTERS, Century STEPHEN REED: DRAMATIC, FIFTH,
Lewis and Clark |
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Visit our Web Page! www.whitman.edu/rhetoric/000forensics.htm |
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