On Wednesday, Nov. 12, the Keene State College Debate Club held their Annual Public Debate in the Mabel Brown Room. The debate addressed important issues, like whether Pumpkin Fest should happen next year, if first years and sophomores should be allowed to live off campus and if the popular phone app Yik Yak should be banned from KSC.
Students reflected on this event.
“The event was focused on three essential debate topics, all of which did not include personal opinions from any debaters, but arguments for each side to demonstrate the overall idea behind the topics,” KSC Debate Club President Ryan Scrivano said.
Tim Smith / Equinox Staff
Some students left the debate happy to have been given a chance to voice their opinions on KSC’s most controversial topics.
“The debate was enjoyable because we got to see students talk about controversial issues that we can relate to as college students,” KSC Junior Tori Folk said.
Folk continued, “It was cool because at the end of the debate the audience had a chance to speak up.”
“I think the event was extremely successful because the debaters, other than myself, had no prior experience publicly debating. A large amount of ideas that most people probably have not thought of were brought forth in the arguments that were demonstrated,” Scrivano said.
Junior Matt Pereira, who is a member of the debate club and hosted the event, talked about why he thought the debate was important.
“The debate was important because we discussed issues surrounding this campus and it helped facilitate civic engagement around the campus,” Pereira said.
Scrivano agreed with Pereira.
“I think that the debate was extremely important because it got out a lot of ideas to the community on essential issues that are relevant to our community, specifically Pumpkin Fest,” Scrivano said.
“After each round, we had a vote on which team won the debate round, and it turned out to be fifty percent to fifty percent on the Pumpkin Fest topic. That indicates that personal opinions are fifty-fifty on whether we should have it next year,” Scrivano continued.
“I really enjoyed the debate and I am looking forward to the next event the KSC Debate [Club] facilitates,” Junior Hanna Desouza said, “As a spectator, it was great that we got to be a part of the debate by voting for what we thought was the best argument.”
Scrivano said that at one point during the debate there was some confusion, but he was impressed with how the crowd and debaters responded.
“We were thrown off because of some confusion on which side we were supposed to take for the housing topic. But I thought that it was quite interesting. Honestly, it took on-the-spot management skills to deal with the confusion, and we were able to get the topic running smoothly,” Scrivano said.
“I ended up being the first speaker because I have six years of experience debating and was able to argue that side of the topic on the spot because of the misunderstanding, which was perfectly fine — it happens sometimes. When it comes to debates, not everything can go perfect all the time,” Scrivano said.
The KSC Debate Club was pleased with the large turnout to their event.
“The turnout was somewhere between one-hundred to one-hundred-and-thirty people. Not only that, but people stayed after the debate part and expressed their views on the issues that we debated, which was awesome,” Scrivano said.
Scrivano talked more about the confusion at the event.
“Personally, my favorite part was getting thrown off by the confusion of the second topic, using my management skills on the spot and still winning the topic. That is honestly how I debate — I usually don’t prepare a case all the time and that was a real test in extemporaneous speaking, which I think was successful on all of our member’s parts,” Scrivano continued.
“Overall, the event promoted civic engagement among our student body and allowed for people to see different perspectives on these important issues,” Scrivano said.
“I would say this was my favorite public debate I have done and I have done six of them before like this,” Scrivano continued.
Roger Weeks can be contacted at rweeks@keene-equinox.com
