ELLIE OWEN, Arts and Life Editor–
The Denison Debate Society recently hosted a town-hall style debate, a medium which has become their signature, in partnership with Braver Angels, an organization that works to end polarization through respectful discourse. For this semester’s debate on the 26th, the society tackled a controversial subject: should Denison focus more of its funding on the arts and humanities over STEM?
Overall the Debate Society seeks to promote debates that may be more controversial and will allow for strong arguments and thorough discussion, which is certainly what they achieved with this most recent debate.
Both students and faculty members on both sides of the issue argued for their cases and focused their time asking whether the humanities disciplines are more important than STEM, and why. There was no clear consensus on whether one side had a more compelling argument, and neither side had more support from audience participants than the other.
There was an agreement that STEM subjects cost more money than humanities, but both provide important critical thinking skills necessary for members of the workforce.
The Denison Debate Society was co-founded by Sadie Webb ‘22 and Zoya Gheisar ‘23 three years ago. Webb now works for the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) and was able to moderate the debate as part of ACTA’s partnership with Braver Angels and Bridge USA. This coalition of the three organizations just received a million dollar grant from the John Templeton Foundation to do a study at ten different institutions to measure the effect of debates at schools across the country, and Denison will be part of the study.
“I am definitely a very assertive person, and I’ve always been somebody who loves debate,” said Webb.
The Debate society started small and needed to become more community-based after COVID limited their options for traveling. Webb and Gheisar wanted to have a Braver Angels debate in order to grow the influence of the club at Denison.
“The Braver Angels style specifically provides a space where everyone is welcome to participate, it doesn’t matter if they have tons of experience or no experience,” said Webb.
“The larger benefit of these debates is to show people that communication is essential and that it can be done in a healthy way… so that when it comes to hot topics, especially hot political topics people are prepared and comfortable to have conversations that are absolutely necessary.”
“It’s a very accepting group,” said President Zach Broeren ‘23.
During their weekly meeting, the society focuses on learning how to debate well in order to win competitive debates against other colleges. The Braver Angels debate is done once a semester. Everyone is welcome to attend meetings, no matter how much experience they have with debate.
“It’s a very accepting group,” said President Zach Broeren ‘23.
The society came up with seven different questions that they believed would make for a healthy debate and the LISSKA Center sent out a survey to students asking which questions would make for an interesting debate. The debate society looked for an even split of students that agree and disagree with the questions.
“Deciding on the topic probably takes the longest because it’s what draws people out,” said Broeren.