What does the Team promote?
The Roger Sherman Debate Society is WCSU’s policy debate team. We are an organization promoting more and better debate both at WCSU and throughout the nation. Debate competition includes traveling to universities across the nation and competing against peers from almost every university in the country. As a member of the North East Conference of debate we take on the top competition in the world, facing off against the top academic institutions: NYC, Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth, Boston College, and the United States Military Academy, just to name a few. Why Debate? Competitive debate is an opportunity to show that your ideas are the best and students from WCSU are just as good, if not better, than students from the former mentioned institutions. We pride ourselves on our competitive nature. Acting as a member of the team demands rigorous effort be put towards research, speaking and argument formation. Meeting the demands of competitive policy debate instills skills useful in academia, law, business, and other professions. Members of our team have gone on to tackle the demands of law schools across the country.
What are the benefits of policy debate?
Participating in debate has a net effect on the improvement of LSAT, GRE, GMAT, and other standardized test scores as well the improvement of GPA. For students who set high goals, debate is a true path to accomplishing them. Students from any discipline of study are encouraged to be a part of debate as each discipline can bring new and diverse ideas to the table. For those students interested in reaching for the stars, WCSU debate is at your finger tips.
Where does the Team compete?
The Roger Sherman Debate Society competes in the Northeast Region of the Cross Examination Debate Association, an association that does not mandate any style of debate. Since 1995, however, CEDA has adopted policy debate resolutions and merged with the collegiate policy debate association, the National Debate Tournament, in 1998 for competitive purposes. Accordingly, for the past decade or so, CEDA debate has come out with a year-long resolution focused on public policy issues, though a policy style of debate is still not mandated.