by EMILY MELTON
News Reporter

Last year, the Appalachian State University Forensics Union, commonly referred to as the Appalachian Debate Team, was awarded 10th place in the nation by the American Debate Association.

This year, the 24-member team hopes to continue its success.

Debates will be held this month in room 114 of Belk Library & Information Commons at 7 p.m. tomorrow, Feb. 16 and Feb. 18. The first debate was held last night.

Each semester, the team holds between three and five debates.

The debates are open to the public and audience members are encouraged to ask questions, make comments and express opinions.

Each debate will be based on audience response and audience members are not obligated to attend each one.

The selected topic of the debates, mountaintop removal and clean coal, will allow the debaters to practice for a scholarship competition in March on the same topic.

The topics were also chosen in response to the coal ash plant disaster in Kingston, Tenn.

This year, the debates will include designated fact checkers to ensure accuracy.

“We’ll have people on laptops checking facts,” Mariam R. Willis, communication instructor and co-director of the Appalachian

Forensics Union said. “We’re going to incorporate them into the debates this time, and it will hopefully elevate the level of conversation.”

The team will also be the host of Socrates Café, a series of facilitated philosophical discussion groups.

Small groups are formed based on the numbers of participants and are led by a facilitator, who helps the group choose a question to discuss.

“The facilitator helps the group choose a question that’s kind of hard to answer, like, ‘What is the meaning of life? Can guys and girls really just be friends?,’” Willis said.

Then, for approximately an hour and a half, the group has open conversation about the topic or one related.

“Everybody comes from their own unique perspectives, so it’s fun,” Willis said. “And you’re right. Whatever your perspective is, is absolutely right.”

Socrates Café will be held every Tuesday during the month of February, and will begin at 6:45 p.m. in Crossroads Café of Plemmons Student Union.

Willis said everyone of all ages and backgrounds is welcome to come.

“My favorite part of debate is when students discover that they can learn things without getting a grade, that learning is really exciting and that they’re going to be life-long learners,” Willis said. “The more you know, the more you know that you don’t know and you have to be okay with that. Debate teaches you to be okay with that.”

Joe D. Graziano, junior philosophy major, joined the team after participating in Socrates Café discussions.

He then became involved in public debate and is currently preparing for competitive debate.

“I’m a sucker for debating politics,” Graziano said.

He would like to receive a debate scholarship for graduate school.

“I think the most challenging part of the whole process is debating something that’s boring,” Graziano said. “For our national competition, we’re talking about farm subsidies, and it’s hard for me to get passionate about it, which makes it harder to debate.”

Roberta J. Fields, junior political science major, has been debating for a semester.

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