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Lafayette will host the Pennsylvania Forensics Association’s State Championship Tournament this weekend, beginning with the first round of Lincoln-Douglas debate noon Saturday and culminating with an awards ceremony 7:30 p.m. Sunday.
Most of the tournament will take place in Pardee Hall, with the awards ceremony to be held in Colton Chapel. Spectators are welcome; however, they should first check in at the ballot table in the Pardee lobby.
“This tournament is a huge step forward for Lafayette College,” says Scott Placke, director of forensics. “We have never hosted a collegiate forensics tournament before. It is a great opportunity to show off our campus to other schools, and in doing so convey part of the Lafayette experience. It is an honor that the state organization voted to hold the tournament at Lafayette.”
The College’s Forensics Society has taken second place at the state tournament for the past two years.
“The two most important competitions of the year are the national tournament in April and the Pennsylvania state tournament,” says Placke. “I see nationals as being a fundamentally individual competition, since success will most likely be in a more student-by-student competition. States is different. Since it is competitively smaller, I see it as much more of a team effort. It is the last tournament in the pre-nationals season in which the whole team will attend together.”
Forensics Society members are eager to show off their campus and gain more experience.
“Every point and entry matters, as every year we get closer and closer to the first place state team championship trophy,” says Marquis Scholar Kim Moore ’05 (Longwood, Fla.), a psychology major. “For the last two years we have been the second-place team in the state. Hopefully this year we can overtake St. Joseph’s as the first-place team.”
“Having the state tournament at Lafayette is a real honor,” adds Erik Heins ’05 (Center Moriches, N.Y.), a Trustee Scholar and a double major in philosophy and government & law. “This is the first time the Lafayette team has run a tournament, so we are all very excited to see how it turns out.”
The schedule:
Saturday, Feb. 26
Noon: Round I, Lincoln-Douglas debate
1:00 p.m.: Round II, Lincoln-Douglas debate
2:00 p.m.: Extemporaneous draw
2:30 p.m.: Round I, Group C
3:45 p.m.: Round I, Group B
5:00 p.m.: Round I, Group A and Round III, Lincoln-Douglas debate
6:15 p.m.: Extemporaneous draw
6:45 p.m.: Round II, Group C
8:00 p.m.: Round II, Group B
Sunday, Feb. 27
7:30 a.m.: Continental breakfast
8:00 a.m.: Round II, Group A and Round IV, Lincoln-Douglas debate
9:15 a.m.: Extemporaneous draw
9:45 a.m.: Round III, Group C
11:00 a.m.: Round III, Group B
12:15 p.m.: Round III, Group A and Lincoln-Douglas debate quarterfinals
1:30 p.m.: Lunch break
2:00 p.m.: Extemporaneous draw
2:30 p.m.: Finals, Group C
3:45 p.m.: Finals, Group A and Lincoln-Douglas debate semi-finals
5:00 p.m.: Finals, Group B
5:45 p.m.: Finals, Lincoln-Douglas debate
7:30 p.m.: Awards
Group Definitions
Group A: Poetry, impromptu speech, rhetorical criticism, and Lincoln-Douglas debate
Group B: persuasion, dramatic duo, and after-dinner speaking
Group C: prose, informative speech, extemporaneous speech, and program oral interpretation
Prior tournament reports
Last season’s national tournament and links to all 2003-04 articles