{"id":20265,"date":"2013-10-10T16:57:54","date_gmt":"2013-10-11T02:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=20265"},"modified":"2020-07-31T11:19:15","modified_gmt":"2020-07-31T21:19:15","slug":"uh-debate-team-arguably-among-the-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2013\/10\/10\/uh-debate-team-arguably-among-the-best\/","title":{"rendered":"<abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> debate team arguably among the best"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"676\" height=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CGqn62bRa8Y\" title=\"Youtube video player\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/communicology\/undergraduate\/debate-and-forensics-society\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M&#257;noa debate team<\/a> showed off its skills at a debate between team members on a proposal to freeze tuition hikes. <\/p>\n<p>The team&#8217;s first debate of the 2013&#8211;2014 school year was held at the <a href=\"http:\/\/shidler.hawaii.edu\/\">Shidler College of Business<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Here is a sample of the statements made during the event before the dozens of students, faculty and community members who attended.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&ldquo;We stand against any tuition increase, which is going to threaten student access to the university.&rdquo; <\/li>\n<li>&ldquo;Students wishing to partake in the privilege of higher education, and reap the rewards, must be willing to pay their share in a changing and stimulating society, even if society will not.&rdquo; <\/li>\n<li>&ldquo;We can continue to be a great school, but we can do it without increasing the burden on the students.&rdquo; <\/li>\n<li>&ldquo;This plan on freezing tuition is like saying lowering taxes on the wealthiest one percent is going to increase services to the poor. It just doesn&#8217;t add up.&rdquo; <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>(For the full effect, please watch the accompanying video.)<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_20248\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20248\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/debate.jpg\" alt=\"person speaking in front of a group\" width=\"400\" height=\"254\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20248\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/debate.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/debate-260x165.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-20248\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa debate team showed off its skills at its first debate of the 2013\u20132014 school year.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Reestablished in 2008 after decades inactivity, the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M&#257;noa debate team has quickly developed into a nationally ranked collegiate program. Because funds are extremely tight, <abbr>UH<\/abbr> only participates in the most prestigious competitions in the world. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We&#8217;ve competed in Botswana, we&#8217;ve competed in Istanbul, we&#8217;ve competed in Vermont, Oregon, Denver, Washington, California,&rdquo; said the team&#8217;s coach <strong>Robert Boller<\/strong>, an assistant professor in the <a href=\"http:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/communicology\/\">Department of Communicology<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;What we get to show is that the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> does have talent and we get to pit that talent against Stanford, Yale, Harvard and whoever else wants to come toe-to-toe,&rdquo; said debate team member <strong>Justin Bongco<\/strong>. &ldquo;And I think that we do intellectually stand up.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Supported by <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M&#257;noa&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/communicology\/undergraduate\/debate-and-forensics-society\/\">Debate and Forensic Society<\/a> and the Department of Communicology, the debate team is example of the amazing array of opportunities <abbr>UH<\/abbr> offers its students.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The ability to engage in these debates and kind of fight against like dogma and really expand our ability to argue effectively is one, I think, that&#8217;s been beneficial to me,&rdquo; said debate team member <strong>Sterling Higa<\/strong>. &ldquo;I think that everybody in the organization benefits a lot from what we do.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I see them develop at such a rapid rate, intellectually, academically, professionally in their communication skills,&rdquo; said Boller. <\/p>\n<p>The team, which any <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M&#257;noa student can tryout for, is also committed to hosting a local intercollegiate league and assisting at speech and debate events for local elementary, middle and high school students. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;When they leave the university, I think they are the types of students we want to represent <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M&#257;noa,&rdquo; said Boller. <\/p>\n<p>As for the debate on the tuition freeze bill, the team in favor of the freeze won, but the real winners were those who attended and witnessed a civil, articulate and highly educated discussion on an issue critical to the university. <\/p>\n<p>Higa said it best in his opening statement. &ldquo;In this time of need, we need more, and not less conversation. We&#8217;re very pleased that you have come here to be part of the conversation today.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<h2>Support the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M&#257;noa debate team<\/h2>\n<p>To learn more, visit the <a href=\"http:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/communicology\/undergraduate\/debate-and-forensics-society\/\">Department of Communicology website<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uhfoundation.org\/give\/giving-gift.aspx?allocation_12069104\">Go online to make a tax deductible contribution<\/a> to support the debate team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M&#257;noa  debate team showed off its skills at the first debate of the 2013\u20132014 school year on a proposal to freeze tuition hikes at the university.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,12],"tags":[9],"class_list":["post-20265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","category-video","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20265"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123928,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20265\/revisions\/123928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}