Laura Bucio
Staff Writer
The Associated Student Forum awarded Lordsburg Debate Union a $9,000 grant, which will be used to sponsor the University of La Verne’s debate team in an upcoming competition.Rob Ruiz, captain of the debate team, petitioned for the money with a presentation that outlined the goals and accomplishments of the debate team.
“Debate is one of the largest non-athletic organizations on campus,” Ruiz said.
Currently the debate team has more than 50 members and gives freshmen and sophomores the opportunity to join.
ULV’s debate team is currently No. 1 in the nation and No. 11 in the world.
Every year the debate team takes two trips. In November it goes to Oxford and in December it attends the World Championship, which is held in different parts of the world.
ASF has helped the debate team fund these activities in previous years.
“ASF has been very supportive of the debate team and has always come through for us,” Ruiz said.
The debate team is planning to use the award money to attend the Canadian University International Debate competition 2005.
The competition will decide North America’s debate champions.
“That will take care of airfare and hotel,” debate team member Rida Fatima said.
ASF granted the money to sponsor the debate team, but with the expectation that underclassmen would be given the opportunity to attend the competition.
The debate team’s captain, with the help of Ian Lising, assistant professor of speech communication and coach, decides who attends the competition.
“Three fourths of the traveling students are guaranteed to be freshmen and sophomores,” Ruiz said.
Being part of the competition would be very valuable for the students, Fatima said.
“You learn so many things,” she added.
Laura Bucio can be reached at laurab2003@hotmail.com.
Journalism operations manager at the University of La Verne. Production manager and business manager of the Campus Times.