A three-peat achieved: Fulton Debate defeats New York University to win University Club Championship

Boston College defeated New York University in the 14th annual Percy. S. Douglas Memorial Debate held on November 15^th at the University Club in New York City.  Four members of the Fulton Debating Society participated in the debate: Richard Jove, ’21, Jenna Bilak, ’19, Connor Coles, ’20, and Claire Wortsman ’20.

The University Debates utilizes a parliamentary style of debating, where speakers are allowed to interrupt during their opponents’ constructive speeches by raising points of information.  Each side is represented by 4 debaters.  The first six speeches are seven minutes in length with each side giving a five minute rebuttal.

The motion for the debate was, “This house believes that a free college education should be made available to all Americans.” A month prior to the debate, a coin flip determined the sides for the debate.  Boston College was assigned the role of the Opposition, meaning it opposed providing free college education to all; New York University acted as the Government and advocated in favor of free college education.

The debate was moderated by the Hon. Andrew P. Napolitano, who is a senior judicial analyst for Fox News and a distinguished visiting professor at Brooklyn Law School. Previously, Napolitano served on the New Jersey bench and was the state's youngest then-sitting Superior Court judge.

Boston College was invited to compete in the Percy. S. Douglas Memorial Debate by Michael Devlin who is a 1988 graduate of Boston College as well as a member of the Boston College Board of Trustees.

In support of the government side, NYU argued that providing a free college education would improve educational access for minorities and produce a more skilled workforce.  Boston College responded by citing empirical evidence that free public college in countries like Germany has resulted in lower graduation rates, fewer skilled workers, and worse outcomes for minority students.  Instead of free college for all, Fulton advocated increasing the funding to the existing Pell Grant program so that the financial needs of low and middle-income students were met.  This better targeted resources, while avoiding giving free tuition to wealthy families like Trump’s.

The judges for the debate were the members of the University Club, who by a vote of 50 to 2, resoundingly declared Boston College the winner of the debate; making BC the first three-peat winner of the debate. Other than BC,  no college has won the debate more than once.

After the debate, the University Club treated all the participants to a spectacular lobster dinner and a tour of the opulent library and meeting spaces of the University Club building.

As the champion of the University Debates, Boston College will have their named etched on a large sterling silver trophy that is housed at the club and be invited back next year to compete against a new opponent.