Over the weekend of 9-11 October 2020, Fulton Debate competed in its first on-line debate tournament hosted by the University of Mary Washington.
Twenty-five schools participated in the tournament. A partial list of schools debating at the tournament included Cornell, Emory, Georgetown, George Mason, Gonzaga, Navy, the University of Georgia, the University of Michigan, and the University of Minnesota.
The intercollegiate debate topic for 2020-2021 academic year is, “Resolved: The United States Federal Government should reduce its alliance commitments with Japan, the Republic of Korea, North Atlantic Treaty Organization member states, and/or the Republic of the Philippines, by at least substantially limiting the conditions under which its defense pact can be activated.”
Boston College teams advocated a plan to limit the U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty with the Philippines by excluding from its coverage any disputed territories in the South China Sea which are not under the administrative control of the Philippines.
The rationale for changing the treaty in this way was to avoid the United States from becoming entangled in a Philippine-China war over disputed reefs in the South China Sea.
Debating in their first junior varsity tournament, Louis Gleason, IV,’23 and Cross Conrad,’23 advanced to the quarter-finals. During the preliminary rounds, they defeated teams from the University of Georgia, George Mason, and the University of Mary Washington.
In the quarter-finals, Conrad & Gleason were locked on the affirmative against Liberty. In a split decision, BC lost to Liberty.
Cross Conrad also received individual recognition. He was named the 10th best speaker in junior varsity.
Except for a brief delay in the tournament as a result of a power failure in the building where all the Liberty teams were debating, the tournament experienced no problems related to the using the on-line debate platform (called Classrooms.Cloud).
For information about the debate program, contact John Katsulas at katsulas@bc.edu