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“For a freshman to qualify for the NFA national tournament in only his second collegiate tournament is virtually unprecedented, and that’s what Jason did last year,” says Bruce A. Murphy, Lafayette’s Fred Morgan Kirby Professor of Civil Rights and director of forensics. “Now, to begin the team’s second season, he has continued his extraordinary run of success in both Lincoln-Douglas and impromptu speaking.”
Jason Paul of Lafayette College’s Forensics Society has qualified to represent Lafayette in the National Forensics Association Championships for the second straight year.
Paul, a sophomore from Boca Raton, Fla., qualified for the national tournament in two events, Lincoln-Douglas debate and impromptu speaking, by virtue of his performance at the forensics society’s first competition of the season, held Oct. 22 and 23 at Towson University.
The NFA tournament will be held in April at Ohio University.
Paul is cofounder and copresident of the Lafayette Forensics Society, which is in only its second season of competition. Paul qualified for the NFA nationals in Lincoln-Douglas debate last year, too.
Bruce A. Murphy, Lafayette’s Fred Morgan Kirby Professor of Civil Rights and director of forensics, says, “For a freshman to qualify for the NFA national tournament in only his second collegiate tournament is virtually unprecedented, and that’s what Jason did last year. Now, to begin the team’s second season, he has continued his extraordinary run of success in both Lincoln-Douglas and impromptu speaking.”
The NFA’s topic this year for Lincoln-Douglas competition — a one-on-one cross-examination debate — is whether the U.S. Federal Government should significantly increase restrictions on the development, use, and/or sale of genetically modified organisms.
Also at the Towson competition, Brandt Siegal, a first-year student from Marysville, Ohio, placed placed 10th in Lincoln-Douglas debate and tied for eighth place in impromptu speaking.
“Brandt did very well in his first collegiate competition,” Murphy says. “He narrowly missed qualifying for the nationals in both events.”
The team plans to compete in tournaments at New York University Nov. 12-13 and Ohio State University Dec. 4-6.