About the Sea Warrior Squad:

The HPU Sea Warrior Debate Society is always excited to welcome new minds and talent to its already excelling debate squad. Undergraduate and graduate students of all majors with or without previous debate and public speaking experience are eligible to participate in and/or observe debate practices and activities.

A student wishing to join the squad should have an open mind, want to increase her/his ability to speak in public and have the desire to learn about and critically analyze problems and policies at local and global levels. The world of collegiate debate will challenge your mental and academic boundaries, help you grow as an individual and communicator and allow you to make friends and contact with students of debate all over the world.

If you have any questions please, contact:

Rose Helens-Hart, HPU Director of Debate

1188 Fort Street Mall, Suite 327

ph: 808-544-9378; fax: 808-544-0835

rhelens@hpu.edu

Schedule:

Debate practices for the Spring 2010 semester are on Mondays and Wednesdays 3:05-5:00  in MP 240.

HPU Sea Warrior Debate Society events will be held throughout the school year to engage the HPU and Honolulu communities in debate and discourse.

HPU's intramural debate tournamet, the Spring Downtown Showdown, will be held on April 24th. Students interested in competing should contact the director of debate.See the "News" section of the website for more details.

There are several other traveling and tournament possibilities for members such as the HPU hosted Pan Pacific Championship debate tournament. Faculty, staff and HPU students are encouraged to come out for the tournament. Click here to read more on judging and observing debates at the Pan Pacific Championship!

Team members also participate as judges and instructors at high school tournaments and debate institutes for the Hawaiian Speech League and the Hawaiian Home School League.

About Debate:

There are many different formats of debate practiced throughout the world. The Sea Warrior squad primarily participates in a format modeled after British Parliament and used at the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC). It is often referred to simply as "Worlds style." In this extemporaneous style of debate, teams are given 15 minutes before the start of each round to prep arguments for or against a motion (an assertion such as "child labor is morally unjustified"). Motions are different every round and cover a wide range of political and philosophical subjects.

Only in recent years have US universities consistently hosted Worlds style tournaments and exclusively participated in this style even though some schools have a long history of competing at WUDC. This means the Sea Warrior squad is in the world of college debate at an exciting time. The increased focus many US universities have put on Worlds style debate has paid off as American teams are now regularly placing in the top 32 (if not 4!) of the 330+ teams that compete at WUDC every year.

Online resources:

World Debating Website: http://flynn.debating.net/

HPU Sea Warriors Debate Society Facebook Group: http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5438933219

Pan Pacific Championship Debate Tournament

Cork Worlds 2009: http://www.corkworlds2009.com/

Debate Central: http://debateuvm.edu/