UO’s Forensics Program
Students Argue Their Way to the Top

Tom Suarez waited nervously for his turn to speak at last year’s National Individual Event Tournament in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Nerves combined with the hot, humid air were making him sweat profusely. He was still a bit overwhelmed by the news that he had made it to the competition’s quarterfinal round, one of 24 out of 150 to qualify.

Suarez, a veteran of the UO Forensics Program’s Speech and Debate team, also was worried about the mainly conservative audience’s reaction to his topic: a call to boycott Monsanto Corporation for dumping toxic chemicals. But as his name was called, he felt a surge of confidence.

“I thought to myself, ‘I don’t care how well I do or how they react,’ ” says Suarez. “This is an important speech that people need to hear. And that was my epiphany. I realized that this is a forum for issues, it’s about questioning how we think.”

Suarez, a senior who has been involved with speech and debate throughout his entire time at the UO and during high school, describes forensics as the defining activity of his life. It’s a passion he shares with other forensics aficionados.

“It is not an exaggeration to say that the forensics program provided me with more training in the skills relevant to being a lawyer than every other course I took at the UO combined,” says Alec Boyd ’89, a forensics alumnus who now works for the San Francisco law office of Arter & Hadden.

Heidemarie Ford, a political science major, says forensics “has helped me in my academic and professional pursuits in a way no other group, team, or organization has been able to do.”

Forensics teaches students important life skills, says David Frank, program director since 1981. They learn to research complicated subjects, organize their ideas and present concise arguments. Students discover how to question their own preconceptions by exhaustively researching such weighty matters as U.S. foreign policy, political oppression, gun control and civil rights. They may not change their convictions, but they figure out that there are no simple answers.

“If we haven’t changed their opinions, we’ve failed,” says Frank. “Students become more sympathetic to the complexity of issues.”

Forensics has a long history at the UO. It grew out of two literary debate societies formed soon after the university was founded in 1876. By 1910, debating contests were drawing large crowds of paying spectators. The debate team at the time even gave money to the fledgling football team. In 1969, the program was ranked No. 1 in the country.

Frank since has led the team to hundreds of awards at state and national competitions. Last year, one debate duo made it to the octafinals at the national level, placing them ninth in the country. In 1987, the team won the Northwest Forensic Conference and a list of other major events.

Each year, the team of twenty to thirty students enters between fifteen and twenty tournaments that covers three categories: policy debate, parliamentary debate and individual events. Tournaments require travel and giving up many weekends. While students earn credit through the Robert D. Clark Honors College, the commitment is rigorous and time-consuming.

But Boyd, for one, wouldn’t have missed the road trips. He remembers piling into a van and talking for hours about politics, art and sports en route to regional tournaments. “We would try to solve the world’s problems,” he says.

“It’s a real learning community,” adds Frank. “This program best exemplifies what an undergraduate education ought to provide.”