Debate Team Duo Takes First in National Competition

Whitman College debate team partners Ava Liponis ’23 and Susanna Williams ’20 had a lot on their minds as they prepared for the novice finals of the National Parliamentary Debate Association’s national championship tour in March, and it wasn’t just how they were going to craft, propose and defend their arguments. Whitman’s team of debaters competing at nationals had just received the news that the college would move all class instruction online due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Despite the stressful conditions, Liponis and Williams kept their focus. Williams credits this to her ability to compartmentalize what was going on around her and center on the task at hand. This benefited the duo as they successfully debated their way to a first-place finish in the novice division.

"I tend to be a person that's very task oriented, I'm good at compartmentalizing things. Having a task to focus on like nationals kind of made it easier to be able to do what we needed to do just because I could take what was happening at Whitman, and put it over in a different space in my head, and then focus on my competing,” said Williams, a sociology major from Burlington, Washington.

This is both Liponis’ and Williams’ first year as members of the debate team. They credit their success to the approach director Lauran Schaefer and assistant director Baker Weilert take to “learn by doing.”

"I think that a lot of their personal growth comes from the tournaments because it challenges them, and they don’t have any outside resources. It puts the onus on the student, which is stressful and challenges them, but it also builds their education in new ways,” Weilert said. 

Originally from Brentwood, New Hampshire, Liponis agreed. 

“They just throw you right in to see how you do, because every round that you do, you just improve exponentially. The first tournament that I did, I had no idea what I was doing. But that’s really how you learn,” Liponis said.

COVID-19 Causes Competition Changes

The national competition, held at McKendree University in Lebanon, Illinois, from March 11-14, had to make some quick changes due to COVID-19. The tournament was completed, but eliminated teams were asked to leave campus instead of staying around to watch the final rounds. The award ceremony for the competition was streamed via live video with only one member from each team allowed to be present in-person. During their last team dinner before all flying home to different places across the country, Whitman’s debate team gathered around an iPad to find out the results of their hard work over the weekend.

“Usually we are all really excited to win and they were all really deflated because it was hard to win with the circumstance of being stressed about, ‘Am I going home? Am I staying on campus? What about my education?’” Schaefer said. “We had tense, stressful moments, but I think that we are really bonded and took care of one another, and by the end of it we were like, ‘Man this was really hard,’ but we were all grateful to have each other in those moments.”

First-year Maria Del Carmen Martinez ’23 came to Whitman from Naples, Florida, with many years of prior debate experience in public forums, but it was the close-knit support of the team that pushed her to succeed this season. Martinez and her partner, classics major Reeve Boyer ’22 of Redmond, Washington, placed 5th nationally in the novice championships. 

“There was really good moment where Lauran and Baker were talking to us — I felt like they were talking to us as human beings. They were like, ‘Listen, we realize the severity of the situation. Yeah, we want you to continue debating, because we all worked really hard to get where we are.’ But, at the same time, they really encouraged us to take a moment as human beings,” Martinez said. “If we didn't want to continue, we didn't have to continue. They just really valued us going through what a stressful pandemic encourages in the mental aspect.”

Successful Second Season

The debate team had a successful second season. They competed at tournaments across the country throughout the Parliamentary debate season that goes from July to March. There are multiple national tournaments during the debate season, culminating in the National Tournament of Excellence that debaters must qualify for based on the points they have earned throughout the season.

Team participation numbers have steadily increased since the debate program returned at Whitman in 2018, with nearly 20-24 debaters competing this season. Schaefer and Weilert praised the team for the amazing support and compassion that teammates show to one another. The team is a big family. Schaefer loves cooking for the team and having dinners together.

“The most special moments aren’t the wins; they are the times when the team is just hanging out and joking around,” she said. 

Liponis echoed that laughter is a key component of the team, noting that the coaches aid in the funny moments.

“We joke a lot. We are very close. Our coach, Lauran is very funny. That is one of my favorite things about the team — that we’re all very close and connected and willing to laugh at each other and ourselves,” Liponis said.

Debate brings students from diverse backgrounds and interests at Whitman together and makes them into a supportive family that can weather not only the stress of competition, but monumental moments like the outbreak of the pandemic.

 “It's just an opportunity to learn and grow and be surrounded by people that I might not otherwise be surrounded by, who are very in tune with what's going on in the world and who have very innovative ways to think about how to go about the world and its issues,” Williams said.