Winners • Members
of the Cal State Long Beach Forensics Team,
also known as the Speech and Debate Team,
are ranked No. 1 in California and No.
10 in the United States. Photo submitted
by Tony Mata.
No
debate: Forensics team No. 1
By
Amber Muranaka
Online Forty-Niner
Assistant City Editor
Cal State Long Beach’s Forensics (Speech and Debate) Team is ranked No.
1 in California and 10th in the United States.
The team received the No. 1 rank because of its overall achievements and number
of wins throughout the 2005-06 year. The season started last September and
ended in April.
There are about 30 active members who compete in tournaments and 200 members
who participate in intramurals and fundraisers. According to Forensics Team
Secretary Matthew Baldwin, the students are primarily communications or political
science majors, but the team has students in almost every major.
Tournaments are nearly every weekend, usually adding up to three weekends per
month.
“
It’s hard to compete and go to school full-time,” said Sarah Leimbach,
President of the Forensics Team.
The tournament consists of three debates: policy, parliament and individual.
Policy debates consist of one topic used for the entire year, whereas parliament
debates have different topics for every round. CSULB is the only school with
all three teams in all three types of debates.
The Forensics Team also does community service events like coaching inner-city
debate students.
“
We help out about once a week,” Leimbach said, “and sometimes on
the weekends if there’s a debate tournament.”
Recently, the speech team entered in the National Forensics Association National
Tournament at the University of Wisconsin, AuClaire April 14-17.
The team sent its top three students: Jeremy Carson, Joe Faina and Daniel Lopez.
Carson, a junior design major, took fourth place in Communication Analysis.
Faina, a senior, was a quarterfinalist in Persuasion and a semifinalist in
Communication Analysis. Lopez, a junior, was a quarterfinalist in Impromptu
and a semifinalist in Persuasion and After Dinner Speaking. CSULB took second
place overall in the small entry division.
At the American Forensics Association, the national speech tournament, at the
University of Florida, Gainsville, Fla., CSULB advanced seven speeches to elimination
rounds. The team took 10th place in the country in intercollegiate speech and
Carson was ranked the seventh speaker in the country.
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