By Libby Keatinge
Daily Bruin Contributor
On Tuesday, UCLA’s Speech and Debate Team celebrated its
13th place showing at a national competition, recognized team
members and honored past participants at the Speech and Debate
Alumni Reception at the Faculty Center.
Coach Tom Miller honored each member of the team with individual
achievement awards, acknowledging their hard work: the countless
hours they spent late at night and on weekends researching current
events.
The team placed 13th out of 77 schools at the national
competition in Nebraska and participated in several other
competitions, despite lack of school funding.
“Each member of the team put up three to four thousand
dollars in order to pay for travel and entry fees,” said Dena
Yahya, a second-year political science student who won the award
for best novice debater at the five-day competition in
Nebraska.
The team participates in parliamentary-style debate
competitions, where each “team,” consisting of two
members from the eight-member team, is given a topic 15 minutes
before the competition begins. Each team member chooses a partner
whom they work with throughout the year in order to prepare for
competition.
“Parliamentary debate really forces you to think on your
feet and be caught up on most issues,” Yahya said.
To keep up with current social and political events, each member
of the team reads newspapers, three major news magazines, and
researches news on the Internet daily.
As well as debate, which focuses on law and politics, the team
also participates in speech competitions, which can be humorous and
dramatic.
Ryan Gesell, a fourth-year theater student and the lone member
of the speech side of the Speech and Debate Team, performed a
dramatic interpretation, at the reception, typical of his speech
competitions, in which he prepared a monologue to present to the
attendees.
Miller concluded the reception by presenting the George C.
Oliver award to two outstanding debaters, seniors Ron Lenert and
runner-up Sheridan England.
“This is a good excuse to get the alumni back so we can
revisit our roots and reaffirm UCLA’s presence in the debate
circuit. It feels good to know you contributed to the legacy of
UCLA debate,” Lenert said.
Alumni who debated as far back as 1930 attended the reception to
celebrate the continued success of this team, which has won seven
national championships. The event also gave former members a chance
to reunite with old teammates.
“This brings back a lot of memories. All of us at the
debate team were a very close-knit group and we’re still
friends today,” said 1935 alumnus Tobias Klinger.
The eight core members of the debate team include Meeta
Chakravatari, Andrew Leet, Owen Paun, Marissa Ritchey, Andrea
Saenz, Lenert, England and Yahya.