Rebecca Pelletier (‘16) of the St. Anselm College Debate Team was fifth place in JV Division of Lincoln-Douglas Debate at the Pi Kappa Delta National Speech and Debate Tournament. The tournament was held at Webster University in St. Louis from March 13-16.
There were nearly 900 students from 86 Colleges and Universities in attendance, with 19 schools in Lincoln-Douglas Debate.
Also, competing for St. Anselm College were Christopher Tinsley (‘13), Katie Muzzy (‘15) and Kevin Lacourse (‘15). As a team, St. Anselm College was fifth place in total wins among the 19 schools in Lincoln-Douglas Debate between the Varsity and JV Divisions.
Other schools competing in LD debate included: Central Michigan University, Hillsdale College, Lafayette College, Purdue University, Kansas Wesleyan University, Truman State University, University of Nebraska Lincoln, California Baptist University and Western Kentucky University.
The team was accompanied by Timothy Vaughan (’11) and coach, David Trumble.
Previous to PKD Nationals, they had competed at the Northeast Regional Championship, coming in first place overall team in Lincoln-Douglas, with Katie Muzzy coming in second place overall debater, Kevin Lacourse fourth place overall debater, and Chris Tinsley coming in first place overall speaker.
The team’s final tournament of the year is the NFA Nationals in April. The Nationals will be held at Marshall University in West Virginia.
This year the team is debating the topic: The US Federal Government should substantially increase assistance to sustainable and/or organic agriculture in the U.S.
Katie Muzzy is debating a case calling for a National Organic Action Plan as a means to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere (and thus global warming) through carbon sequestration in the soil; Christopher Tinsley is proposing a plan to deal with the issues of seed industry consolidation, patent laws for genetically engineered seeds, and the overall decline in seed genetic diversity.
Kevin Lacourse calls for the US to follow the EU policy of banning the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in livestock as a way of reducing the dangers to humans from antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Rebecca Pelletier is debating a case dealing with concentrated animal feedlot operations (CAFOs) and their impact on the environment (water pollution and ocean “dead zones”), and Kelsey Fair (’16) is advocating for expanding urban agriculture as a means to increase access to fresh produce in inner cities thereby reducing obesity and solving for urban blight at the same time.