|
WKU Forensic Team Ready
Bowling Green, Ky. - After sweeping major national and international speech and debate championships the past two years, Western Kentucky University's Forensic Team is like a champion prize fighter ready to take on all challengers.
"No one will deny that we're the best team," said Judy Woodring, forensics director. "But we're the target now. Everyone is after us. We are the No. 1 team in the nation. Should we win? Yes. Will we win? You never know." In the past decade, WKU's speech and debate program has won numerous state, national and international championships. "Western has taken titles that historically have belonged to other schools," Woodring said. Over the next six weeks, Western students will compete in five major tournaments featuring individual speech events, parliamentary debate and other debate competitions. "Our students want to uphold the program's tradition of excellence," Woodring said. Members of the WKU team will compete in the following national and international events: *National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence (NPTE) on March 12-13 at Century College in St. Paul, Minn. Two WKU teams are among those qualified in the parliamentary debate competition. *International Forensics Association on March 12-19 in Mexico/Caribbean. The 15th annual event will be conducted on a cruise ship and will include visits to historic sites, such as Mayan Ruins. WKU has won five IFA championships. *National Parliamentary Debate Association on March 17-20 at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. Three WKU teams will compete in this event. Western joined this group last year. The competition features British-style debate and teams have only 15 minutes to prepare for each round's topic. *American Forensics Association-National Individual Events Tournament on April 1-4 at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan. Again this year, WKU team members will fill more than 160 slots in the competition. *National Forensic Association debate and speech tournament on April 14-18 at the University of Akron in Akron, Ohio. Last year, WKU made history by becoming the first team to win the NFA's individual events and debate titles as well as IFA and AFA titles. Woodring said strong support from administrators and faculty is vital as the forensic team competes for national and international titles. "The administration recognizes we're attracting high-quality students and making the University nationally recognized for academics," she said. "I have also found that faculty members at Western are absolutely wonderful in helping our students win national championships."
|