By Blake Stewart
Trevecca’s first debate club event will take place tomorrow.
The event will be a parliamentary style debate. The topic chosen for the forum will be whether social media is detrimental to society.
“During this tough political climate, the forum will let students see that they can agree to disagree respectfully and will give students a voice when they have felt left out,” said Josh Wilburn, president of Trevecca debate club.
The debate club’s community forum will be held in a parliamentary debate style, which is a two on two debate that consists of shorter speeches and is meant to be cordial.
The Debate Club formed in August 2016 to give students an opportunity to voice their opinions in a respectful way.
“ I feel there are a lot of students that want to speak their mind and creating a debate club allows students that opportunity,” said Wilburn.
The goal of the debate club is to raise awareness of the art of debate and give students an opportunity to sharpen their public speaking skills.
“We want students at Trevecca to learn how disagree respectfully with one another,” said Wilburn.
There is no prep time in a parliamentary style debate, unlike all the other debate styles. This will allow the debates to move quickly and really test the debate skills of those participating, said Christian Mack, vice president of Trevecca debate club
There are 10 members in the debate club, but only four will be competing in the forum.
Wilburn will be teaming up with Anna Turpin, freshman debate club member. The two will be competing against Trevecca senior Bronwyn Kircher and freshman Christian Mack.
There will be before and after activities to attract potential members for the debate club, and the club will be hosting a meet-and-greet before the event starts with the debaters competing.
The event will give students a chance to hear the peer’s viewpoints on topics that are socially relevant and the chance to be persuaded on the pros and cons of social media and its usage in society.
“I like the club because debate is something that is used in everyday life. It allows me to be able to articulate and be persuasive in speech. It’s instrumental in getting a person to listen to what you are saying,” said Kircher.
Tim Gaines, assistant professor in the Millard Reed School of Theology and Christian Ministry, will be giving the invocation to the event.
“I think that students will get a lot out of attending the event,” said Kircher
According to Kircher, it will give students the ability to make their own decisions on how they feel about the topics discussed and help them come to make a more informed decision.
Freshman Anna Turpin said the forum will provide students with an event that is intellectually stimulating.
“I think that students should come to get an idea of what the club does and allows students to figure out if the club is something they would like to participate in the future,” said Turpin.
Judges for the event are Yanice Mendez, assistant professor of biology, Schuy Weishaar, adjunct English professor, and Lena Hegi Welch, dean of school of arts and sciences and Gaines.
The club has prepared questions for the audience at the end for students to give feedback on what they thought of the event and the topics discussed.
“I firmly believe there are ways to discuss issues with opposing views and learn to respectfully disagree with each other,” said Wilburn
