Tufts Debate Society members win Yale IV debate tournament

Members of the Tufts Debate Society won the Yale Inter-Varsity (IV) Debate Tournament, held at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. on Oct. 4. Two other members also reached the final round of the Harvard American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA) Tournamentlast weekend.

First-years John Goulandris and Suntiparp Somsak placed first among the 40 novice first-year debate teams at the Yale IV Debate Tournament. According to Jeremy Chen, a junior in the Tufts Debate Society, the Yale IV tournament is one of the most prestigious British Parliamentary (BP) debate tournaments in the world, with teams flying in from Europe, Canada and all over the United States to participate.

“We are incredibly proud of their performance,” Chen said.

Somsak said he was surprised by their first-place win.

“We went against and won [facing] teams from Dartmouth, Princeton, [University of Pennsylvania] and Harvard, if that means anything, but also were humbled -- and defeated -- by the ability of many 'less prestigious' schools,” he said.

The two person team of Somsak and Goulandris was given 15 minutes to prepare for each topic, according to Goulandris. During that period, Somsak and Goulandris were forbidden from accessing any news media; all arguments during debate had to rest on logic rather than evidence.

“The topics made me think more deeply about the beliefs that I had, such as my opinions on nationality, democracy and capitalism,” he said.

Somsak said that he and Goulandris debated seven topics over the course of the tournament.

“All of the topics were very interesting; [they ranged] from the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to whether American feminists should be obligated to vote [for] female candidates,” Somsak said. “They pointed to key issues faced both by American society and the world at large, and challenged debaters to engage with them.”

Both Somsak and Goulandris performed well throughout the tournament, according to James Latimer, a junior in the Tufts Debate Society, who also participated in the Yale IV tournament.

“It wasn't one or two good rounds that took them to finals; it was performing consistently at a high level both of rhetorical skill and argumentation,” Latimer said.

Somsak and Goulandris had both competed in debate before coming to Tufts, but Goulandris said he had not debated in the tournament's BP style before.

“Before my first tournament in British Parliamentary debate, a form of debate alien to those who came out of American high school debate, my expectations [for winning] were not exactly earth-shattering.” he said. “To state the obvious, our performance exceeded those expectations.”

Goulandris added that it was Somsak's experience with BP that led the team to success.

“To be successful in BP, one should not only beat their opponent but make sure that the other team advocating for your side is unable to make new arguments,” he said.

Chen and Latimer, who were representing Tufts in the varsity team at Yale, finished 20th overall among 152 teams, according to Chen.

“Latimer and I tied for the number of points needed to make the quarterfinal [top 16 teams], but lost out on tiebreaks,” Chen said.

Somsak said Latimer and Chen spent hours helping to train Somsak, Goulandris and the other debate team members.

“We wouldn't even have a chance without them," he said.

At the Harvard APDA tournament last weekend, first-years Adam Rapfogel and Noah Weinflash reached the final round of the Harvard tournament, the largest of the season with 159 teams.

Goulandris said that Rapfogel and Weinflash's incredible argumentation and biting pushed the team to new levels.

Sophomore James Latimer also finished as the seventh individual debater out of more than 300 debaters in Harvard tournament.

The Tufts Debate Society primarily competes in the American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA) circuit, which includes around 50 universities, according to Chen.

“Every weekend there is a tournament based on the APDA format that features two teams competing against each other in a round,” Chen said.

He said the debate society also competes in the BP format, which is the accepted international standard and the format in which the World Universities Debating Championships(WUDC) are held.

“BP features four teams in a debate round, two debating for a motion and two debating against [it],” Chen said. “At the end of a round, teams are ranked on the basis of their contribution...which includes how creative, original and well-articulated the arguments each team made were.”

Debaters are divided into novice and varsity teams. A novice team has debaters who are in their first year of college debate whereas varsity teams are comprised of debaters in their second year of their college debate career and beyond, according to Chen.

“Each weekend, novice and varsity teams compete against each other in a single pool, i.e. a novice team can face a varsity team,” he said. “At the end of the tournament though, there are separate award categories for the best novice and varsity individual debaters and teams.”

There are currently approximately 40 people in the Tufts Debate Society, according to Latimer.

“We have practices twice a week to prepare for upcoming competitions and we hold topic lectures to prepare people for debates on specific topics,” he said. “One thing we do to encourage people is rotate debate partners in practice rounds often so that people learn from one another's strengths.”

Chen said that this year the group has made it a point to foster interaction between varsity and novice members in both debate and social contexts.

"Our novice members regularly get to debate against varsity members in practice and receive feedback from varsity members watching their practices as well," he said.

Twice a year in the debating league there are Professional Amateur (Pro-Am) debate tournaments, where a varsity team member competes with a novice team member, Chen said.

Tufts has a long tradition of doing well at these; at last year's Northeastern Pro-Am tournament, for example, two teams finished within the top 16, with one making it to the quarterfinals, according to Chen.

Chen said that this year's tryout class was the most talented ever and that the Tufts Debating Society is very pleased with its current roster of first-year debaters.

“We have been very impressed by the willingness of the freshmen to stay for extra practice rounds and to schedule extra practices on their own time," he said.

Goulandris said he is excited by the success that Tufts had at Yale IV.

“Our success at Yale reflected the growing strength of the Tufts program,” he said. “As long as the school continues to back our program, a new generation of Tufts debaters will continue to make groundbreaking accomplishments.”