This content was published: April 3, 2003. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
Debaters place second in the nation
Photos and story by James Hill
PORTLAND, Ore. – Portland Community College student debaters earned second place in overall sweepstakes for community colleges at this year’s National Parliamentary Debate Championships from March 28 to 30. Ninety- three colleges and universities from around the country competed in this year’s tournament, held at Portland State University.In addition, PCC earned a fourth place team award in the yearlong sweepstakes for community colleges. There are 193 colleges and universities competing for points throughout the academic year. About 35 percent of those institutions are community colleges."The performance of the PCC speech and debate team at the National Championships was exceptional; especially considering that one of our best teams had to bow out due to illness with one of the debaters,"said speech instructor Larry Galizio. "I’m excited, although not surprised, that PCC finished in second place for community colleges at the tournament against the top colleges and universities in the nation. We had one of our strongest teams in recent years."The debate program is located at the Sylvania Campus in southwest Portland. Competing for PCC at this year’s nationals were students Marco Nunez (southeast Portland), Clare Sliter (southeast Portland), Danielle Williams (Dayton), Autumn Rouse (Beaverton), Kelly Welch (Tigard), Josh Rupp (West Linn), Adam Reese (southwest Portland), Maya Gomez (southeast Portland), Galen Gamble (northeast Portland) and Kip Kirwan (Beaverton). Some of the topics debated at this year’s tournament included: market-forces are the wrong prescription for health care in the United States; globalism is neocolonialism; the U.S.-media have over-sanitized the war in Iraq; and the U.S. federal government should adopt a policy to significantly reduce dependency on non-renewable energy resources.
About James Hill
James G. Hill, an award-winning journalist and public relations writer, is the Director of Public Relations at Portland Community College. A graduate of Portland State University, James has worked as a section editor for the Newberg Graphic... more »