Released On:
Monday, September 29, 2008
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Wiley College Public Relations
903-927-3201
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SMU DEBATERS WELCOME FAMED WILEY COLLEGE
As reported in "The Daily Mustang"
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By Donnie Wyar
As Barack Obama and John McCain kick off the presidential debate season Friday night, SMU welcomes special guests to campus for a debate watch party.
Debate team members from Wiley College, a small, historically black liberal arts college located in Marshall, Texas, will visit SMU and participate in the audience-based discussion following the televised debate.
Although Wiley’s presence in the campus debate is in a support capacity, it marks the latest step in an effort to revive the once-proud tradition of the Wiley Forensic Society, which was featured in the 2007 Denzel Washington film, “The Great Debaters.” Mr. Washington, who directed and starred in the film, donated $1 million last December to help bring debate back to Wiley.
“Debate is the vital heart of a university, the critical thinking and testing of ideas,” said Dr. Ben Voth, SMU’s new director of forensics. “If it comes back at Wiley, it’s a big national symbol.”
“What we’re trying to do is show the public that debate is not a means for dividing us, but bringing us together,” he said.
Dr. Voth has a unique relationship with Wiley College. He was a member of an executive board formed to bring back Wiley’s debate team last year, before he came to SMU this semester. In addition, he helped establish workshops over the summer for Wiley students to learn necessary debate skills such as case construction and formal arguments.
The highlight of the film is a 1935 debate between Wiley College and the then-defending national champion University of Southern California, although the opponents in the film are from Harvard. Wiley’s victory in that match was part of an incredible run, which included only one loss in 75 debates over a 15-year period.
Led by black poet and activist Melvin B. Tolson, Wiley became a debate powerhouse in the Jim Crow South. Tolson’s most notable students were James Farmer Jr., who later founded the Congress of Racial Equality, and Heman Marion Sweatt, who challenged racial segregation in 1950 when he was denied admission to the University of Texas’ Law School because he was African-American.
After Tolson left Wiley in 1947, the debate program disbanded. But the movie has sparked an effort to resurrect the program. Last month, the college appointed Dr. Shannon LaBove as the forensics program’s new director.
“Since Wiley had not had a team in so long, it was important that things were done the right way,” LaBove said. “We are aware of and remember Wiley’s history, but at the same time, we have to take a step forward and make our own.”
Recognizing Wiley’s “profound” tradition, Voth said Wiley debaters would always be welcome in Dallas.
“We want them to think of SMU as ‘Wiley West’,” he said. “That symbolism is important, because many of us would like to see the country move forward in terms of race in a more harmonious way. The cooperation of SMU and Wiley College is a unique opportunity where the symbols of difference can come together and be powerful.”
Both programs at SMU and Wiley College are in their first year of formal competition, so Friday’s event will give both squads an idea of what to expect this year.
“We’re excited for SMU’s new debate program and to be doing whatever it takes to get more people involved,” said SMU debate team president Deanna Vella. “It’s nice for both of us to launch things together.”
The three-and-a-half-hour event, scheduled for 7 p.m. at SMU’s O’Donnell Lecture and Recital Hall, will feature a live viewing of the presidential debate, followed by a campus debate on the issues, in which SMU students will defend either Obama or McCain’s position on a given subject. Audience members, including Wiley students, will weigh in on the debaters’ comments. Dr. LaBove will sit on a panel of experts explaining what to expect during the event, which will be moderated by Dr. Voth.
Because the event is not officially sanctioned, it will serve as a learning experience for both progr
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