Year 110 came to a close last Saturday night as the Lawrence Debate Union held its annual banquet at the Waterman Manor atop Waterman Hall from 6 PM until 9 PM. The event was attended by over 50 students, staff, parents and supporters of the debate program. The banquet was also designed as a “thank you” to so many who had helped plan, support, implement and clean up after the US Universities Debating Championship held at UVM the first weekend in April. The dual nature of the event gave an extra jolly factor to the proceedings.

The event began with a reception on the porch overlooking Lake Champlain. This is one of the best viewing points in this part of Vermont, and gives a vista of downtown Burlington, Lake Champlain beyond, the Adirondack Mountains on the other side of the lake, as well as extended views to the north (Mississquoi Bay) as well as the south (Shelburne Bay). There was picture-taking and posing as well as meeting and greeting, especially as parents got introduced to those on the debate team who are not their offspring. As a new feature there were appetizers, and especially the spinach and cheese phylo dumplings seemed popular.

After the reception everyone took their seats briefly and then started the buffet line. The meal consisted of salad, penne pasta with tomatoes and zuccini, chicken picatta, spinach lasagna along with bread and fixings. There was a substantial cake and desert display that people seemed to like. There was lots of food and people were encouraged to go for seconds.

At 7:30 PM the real proceedings began with a short review of he year. There was recognition that the LDU hit a new high this year with 48 students debating at tournaments. The scope of international travel was also highlighted, as the “LDU Miles” chart showed just how far they had all traveled. If you take the round-trip distance for each trip, multiply that times the number of people on the trip (person-miles) and add it all together you get 482,136 miles. This is also a new LDU record, and an impressive figure given that the distance from the Earth to the Moon and back is only 477,712. We went to the moon and back with miles to spare.

The awards won by the squad were also highlighted, with 31 awards in policy debate and 39 awards in worlds debate. These included two policy teams that were #9 in the nation and the worlds squad who won the Northeast Universities Debating Sweepstakes for 2008-2009 over Cornell in a runaway, 551 sweepstakes points to 444 for the Big Red. Other awards included the Huber Prizes for Debating, the Director of the Year award from VCAM for Flashpoint and the Humanitarian of the Year Award to LDU director Snider from the National Forensic League.

The next step involved he “farewell” speeches, where those leaving the LDU through graduation or career advancement say a few words to the crowd. It began with Nicole Colston, who will be moving on to work on her doctoral degree. Nicole told some good stories but mostly indicated how the LDU had been her home and nurturing point, and she received a strong applause from the crowd. Seniors were next up, and it is very difficult to categorize or describe these speeches. Carina Berg talked about how debate had solidified her college experience, Lucas Caress spoke about how he did it not for awards or prizes but for the love of the activity and his friends, Mandy Frank talked about how she was lost on campus when she found debate to give her direction, Danielle Goldschneider talked about how debating will never leave her, Taylor Lalemand thanked evryone who had been so helpful to her and how debate made her decide to stay at UVM, Chris Latucca talked about his love for debate and his appreciation for his debate partner, Candi-Star Marti talked about the benefits she received from debating and how she will use them in the future, Joshua Miller talked about when everyone else abandoned him the debate team and his teammates always stood by him, and Ashley Thygesen talked about how debate had given a hockey girl the courage to speak out.

Then the award part of the session began. Awards were given as follows:

    Paul Gross, best first year student debater, Sonneborn Award

    Paul Gross, Edward Butler Prize

    Madeline Murphy Hall, Edward Butler Prize

    Jacob Klein, R&G Lawrence Prize

    Alex Martel, R&G Lawrence Prize

    Sarah Anders, R&G Lawrence Prize

    Isaac Loeb, R&G Lawrence Prize

    Tom Dionesotes, R. A. Lawrence Class of 1899 Prize for Debating

    Allison Hamlin, R. A. Lawrence Class of 1899 Prize for Debating

    Carina Berg, R. A. Lawrence Class of 1899 Prize for Debating

    Lucas Caress, R. A. Lawrence Class of 1899 Prize for Debating

    Amanda frank, R. A. Lawrence Class of 1899 Prize for Debating

    Chris Latucca, R. A. Lawrence Class of 1899 Prize for Debating

    Sam Natale, R. A. Lawrence Class of 1899 Prize for Debating

   and winning the prize as most valuable member of the team...

    Marnie Ritchie, R. A. Lawrence Class of 1899 Prize for Debating

The LDU Banquet Booklet is available at

http://debate.uvm.edu/dcpdf/ldubanquetbook09.pdf

With that the festivities were over and after considerable posing for group photos the proceedings were adjourned. Wait until you see us next year!

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POTENTIAL TRAVEL SCHEDULE FOR 2009-2010 REVEALED

Everything is open to change, but here is the initial plan.

Dates Tournament Format # teams Travel

26-27 Sept UVM Policy wudc All none

3-5 Oct Las Vegas Policy 1 air

3-4 Oct Claremont Wudc 1 air

16-18 Oct West Point Policy 2 van

16-18 Oct Hart House Wudc 4 van

31-2 Nov Harvard Policy 1 van

14-15 Nov West Conn Policy wudc All van

21-29 Nov Intl Debate Academy Slovenia Wudc 2 air

21-23 Nov Wake Policy 1-2 air

Dec WUPID Malaysia Wudc 1 air

27 Dec-5 Jan Worlds Turkey Wudc 3 air

Jan UNT-UTD Policy 2-3 air

30-31 Jan NYC RR Policy 1 van

13-14 Feb Umass Policy wudc All van

27-28 Feb Regionals Policy wudc All van

6-8 Mar Nov Nats Policy 3-4 van

CEDA Policy 1-2 air

NDT Policy 1 air

9-11 Apr USU Regis Wudc Lots air

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SEE THE LATEST PHOTOS AT

http://debate.uvm.edu/debateblog/LDU/08-09_Photos.html

SEE THE LATEST VIDEOS AT

http://debate.uvm.edu/debateblog/LDU/Video/Video.html

ALWAYS CALL IT HUBER HOUSE!