The debate season has just begun, and Sacramento State’s debate team is already raking in wins. During the weekend of Oct. 20, the team participated in a national tournament at Pepperdine University and came away with two semifinalist wins, two quarterfinalist wins and individual speaker awards.

The weekend of Oct. 13 found the squad in Santa Rosa where it received 2nd and 5th placements in the junior varsity division as well as awards for 1st, 2nd and 5th place in the Novice Division.

The season, which runs from September to April 2007, includes semesters of four tournaments each with one national tournament per semester. Unfortunately, Sac State does not have a big enough budget to send its debate team to more than a couple of national tournaments a year, said Kristen Tudor, the debate team’s adviser.

Tudor said the team’s budget for the year is $19,000, cut from $20,000 last year.

Chair of the Communication Studies Department, Nick Burnett, said the budget fluctuated between $16,000 to $20,000 during the years, 1987 to 1996, that he was the debate team adviser. However, he said other national teams budget between $40,000 to $50,000.

“This will keep us from ever being national champions,” Tudor said, adding that while the debate team has been a supported program on campus since the 1970s, its funding has dropped below even what it received in the 1980s.

Still, regional tournaments are extremely competitive, for each competition can include anywhere from 10 to 30 schools with an average of four sub-teams per school.

The debates are a fast-paced collection of information in which copious notes must be taken to keep up with who is saying what. The language used is made up of debate jargon that the everyday viewer could not comprehend, Tudor said.

“We compete in a kind of debate known as policy debate, or CEDA (Cross Examination Debate Association),” Tudor said. “Colleges from across the nation who compete in this kind of debate have a year-long topic.”

Sac State’s topic this year concerns whether the Supreme Court should overturn various decisions made on abortion consent laws, enemy combatant/detainee laws, the Violence Against Women Act and school desegregation, Tudor said.

Tudor said that although the team only has one topic all year, the topic is broad, so each debate will be unique.

The debate squad receives ample amounts of training and guidance throughout its preparation for tournaments. Preparation includes hours of researching subject matter.

Various plastic tubs filled with articles from political science journals, Supreme Court rulings and many other pertinent sources filed to suit the debaters’ needs sit in the debate team’s small office on the fifth floor of Mendocino Hall.

Novice competitors might take six of these research tubs to a tournament, and when they aren’t traveling, debaters will often spend weekends perusing through more research.

Tudor said the research done by a student debater is equivalent to the amount of research put into a master’s degree program.

Tudor said a debater like sophomore team co-captain Chantel Crane will often spend 20 hours a week of her own time working on a debate.

“Often, teams have new positions that you must prepare for, but often you try to find a position that other teams won’t be prepared for,” Crane said. “I try to strengthen my case every week and do drills to make myself a better debater. This includes speed drills (so) that I can speak quickly and efficiently and going over my debates with my excellent coaches.”

The team also receives extensive guidance from graduate student aides Theresa Perry from Chico State and Andrea Terry from Cal Poly, who were on their respective varsity debate teams.

Novice debaters are given handbooks on debate rules, taught the specific jargon used and trained on how to develop the note-taking style called “flowing” that is needed for debates.

However, a novice debater should not be worried about spending extreme amounts of time researching topics and traveling.

“We also welcome people who just want to give it a try,” Tudor said. “It’s a regular course; they get a grade. I don’t want to scare away the kids who don’t have 30 hours a week to spend on debate.”

Students from various majors who hold an interest in debate are encouraged to join the squad.

The majority of the team is often made up of communications and government majors, but there have been math majors and even a pre-med student participating last year, Tudor said.

“I’m going to law school, and debate is perfect for that,” senior Brooke Boehning, Crane’s co-captain, said. “It really prepares you for that type of arena.”

However, it’s not just the individual preparation that attracted Boehning to the team.

“I debated in high school for two years, and it’s the bond of the debate team that drew me,” Boehning said. “The activity is totally rewarding and educational, but it’s really the team itself. Our team is so diverse and we have such a great time together.”