The Fulton Debating Society advanced to the semi-finals in the Junior Varsity Division at the seventh annual Dr. George W. Ziegelmueller Invitational Tournament held on-line during October 21-23, 2022.
A partial list of teams competing at the tournament included Indiana, Navy, Michigan State, New York University, Purdue, Samford, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, Wake Forest, and Wayne State.
The debate topic for the 2022-2023 year is, “Resolved: The United States should vest legal rights and/or duties in one or more of the following: artificial intelligence, nature, nonhuman animal species.”
On this weird and obscure resolution, Boston College teams advocate a plan to impose numerous legal duties requiring algorithms used in financial services to operate in a manner that does not result in collusion, discrimination, or deceptive trading.
Debating for Boston College at the Wayne State Tournament were Cross Conrad,’23 and Louis Gleason IV ’23. In the preliminary rounds, Conrad & Gleason achieved a 4-2 record defeating Wayne State, New York University, Michigan State, and The University of Michigan.
As the third seed, Conrad & Gleason met the University of Michigan in the quarter-finals. BC was locked affirmative as they had defeated that same team debating on the negative side during round 4. In a split decision, BC defeated Michigan.
In the semi-finals, BC faced the number two seed from Purdue. BC was locked affirmative as they had debated and lost to Purdue on the negative during round 6. In another split decision, BC lost to Purdue.
In the finals, Purdue defeated The University of Michigan to win the JV division of the tournament. In the open division, Michigan State defeated Wayne State and Indiana won the novice division.
Both Boston College debaters won individual speaker awards with Louis Gleason winning top speaker honors and Cross Conrad receiving fifth place speaker honors.
For additional information about Fulton Debate, contact John Katsulas at katsulas@bc.edu.