1976-1977

 

The Faculty

  

Remy Wilcox, Director of Forensics

 

JoAnne Rasmussen

Instructor, Speech and Drama

 

1977 Pi Kappa Delta Nationals; Karen Wishart and Kent Phillips, Superiors in Traditional Debate

Whitman News

1976-1977

1. New York actor Jeryy Rockwood visited Whitman to perform a special one man show: “Edgar Allen Poe-A Condition of Shadow.”

 

2. Olin Gallery displayed an extensive collection of Early American Art.

 

3. Over 366 High school Debaters representing over 35 schools visited Whitman for its annual tournament, which was directed by John Stanton.

 

4. The Standard grade point system used to day, which awards different grade points for + or -, was implemented.

 

5. James Earl Carter won the Presidency.

 

6. Whitman won the Northwest Conference soccer championships.

 

7. Poet Diane Wakoski, visited to perform pieces from her collection of poems Diamond Dust.

 

8. Whitman began Administering GREs.

 

Speech Courses

The department's course descriptions reflect a focus on diction and articulation and the debate course offers argumentation training.

Speech Department Description: Courses treat public speaking as a liberal art, proposing that such speaking is not a skill learned by rule but an exercise of judgment that can be no better than the speaker's understanding of the nature of the communicative acts.

 

SPEECH 11. Fundamentals of Speech, 3 hours. (description changes; 11 and 12 are focus more on delivery and articulation)

SPEECH 14. Fundamentals of Articulation and Diction, 3 hours. 

SPEECH 43, 44. Principles and Practice of Forensics, 1 hours (individual events), 2 hours (debate). 

 

1977 Pi Kappa Delta Nationals, second from the right is Kent Phillips, Superior in Extemporaneous Speaking

 

World News

Notes to be constructed

 

Remy proudly showing the Superior certificate that Whitman won at the 1977 Pi Kappa Delta Nationals; Whitman was only one of two schools of the West that won such an award and the smallest team to win such an award.

 

Team Awards

Taken from notes Remy Wilcox wrote:

1976-77

 

The highlight of this year was winning a Superior in Sweepstakes at the Pi Kap National Tournament in Seattle with 515 contestants from 105 colleges and universities.

 

Key to our sweepstakes award was the freshman debate teams of Karen Wishart and Kent Phillips who earned a Superior in debate and had the highest speaker points of all debate teams. They also won 2nd place at Gonzaga and I" at Lower Columbia.

Kent also won a superior in extemp, with the best scores of all entrants.

The debate team of Mike Snell and Bill Anderson earned an Excellent rating.

 

We won 1st place in sweepstakes at Tacoma Community College and the Lower Columbia College. Individual event winners during the year were David Hartsfield and Cathy Tanasse in interp and together in Dual Interp. Mike Bugni in Oratory, impromptu and radio. Kent Phillips won in Oratory as well as extemp. Maura Walsh won in After Dinner Speaking. and also in Lincoln-Douglas Debate