Lambda Pi Eta National Communication Honor Society will host the United Kingdom Debaters on Oct. 20. Members from WTAMU Forensics Team will be paired up with the British debaters to compete that night.

Visiting from the United Kingdom is University of Oxford graduate, Lewis Iwu and University of Cambridge graduate, Mary Nugent. Both Iwu and Nugent will arrive at WT on Oct. 19.

“Some other schools [where Iwu and Nugent] will be competing at are Baylor [in Waco], Texas State in San Marcos and then the University of North Texas in Denton,” Dr. Trudy Hanson, department of communication head, said. “They end

their tour of the United States in San Francisco at the National Communication Association.”

Representing the WT Forensics Team will be, junior advertising and public relations major, Erin Marvin and graduate student in communication, Bethany Beck.

“The style of debate that will be happening Wednesday night is very different than what you would observe in an actual competitive debate round.  Wednesday will almost seem like a forum or panel,” Marvin said.

The debate  will be less structured than the competition a speech team would normally participate in at a tournament.

“We will merely be discussing the facts and our opinions with one another,” Marvin said. “In actual parliamentary debate, the debate is very structured.  There are time limits on speaking time, and the arguments themselves have a particular procedure.”

The debate issue will be, “If this house would allow prayer in school,” Hanson said. The “House” is the ruling government.

“I will most definitely be spending time researching the history behind it and studying the implications it has in our current society, along with what current events made this resolution important enough to debate,” Marvin said.
The debate will be at the Sybil B. Harrington Fine Arts Complex, Room 109 at 6 p.m.