Speaker & Gavel Volume 14 Article 1 Issue 4 Summer 1977 Complete Issue 14(4) Follow this and additional works at: https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/speaker-gavel Part of the Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons Recommended Citation (1977). Complete issue 14(4). Speaker & Gavel, 14(4), 71-98. This Complete Issue is brought to you for free and open access by Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato. It has been accepted for inclusion in Speaker & Gavel by an authorized editor of Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato. et al.: Complete Issue 14(4) speakep An6 QAvel The 1978 National Conference 71 Debate and a Liberal Arts Education: The Forensics Program at the University of Illinois—Kurt W. Ritter 72 A Speaker's Bureau That's Working—William H. Bos 85 British Union Debating; An Eclectic Approach— M. Lynn McCauley and Richard L. Stovell 89 Nev/ Initiates of DSR-TKA 1976-77 95 Table of Parliamentary Motions 98 volume 14, numB6R 4 summep, 1977 Published by Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato,1 Speaker & Gavel, Vol. 14, Iss. 4 [], Art. 1 SPEAKER and GAVEL Official publication of Delta Sigma Rho—Tau Koppa Alpha Notional Honorary Forensic Society PUBLISHED AT LAWRENCE, KANSAS By ALLEN PRESS, INC. Second-class postage paid at Lowrence, Konsos, U.S.A. 66044 Issued quarterly in Fall, Winter, Spring end Summer. The Journal corries no paid advertising. NATIONAL OFFICERS OF DSR-TKA President: THOMAS KANE, University of Pittsburgh Vice President: DAVID 2AREFSKY, Northwestern University Secretory: BERTRAM W. GROSS, University of Georgia Treosurer: JACK H. HOWE, California State University-Long Beoch Trustee: WAYNE C. EUBANK, University of New Mexico Historian: JACK LYNCH, Saint Anselm's College REGIONAL GOVERNORS, MEMBERS AT LARGE, AND REPRESENTATIVES Regionol Governors: WOODROW W. LEAKE, JR., University of Vermont; JAMES J. HALL, St. John's University; HALFORD RYAN, Woshington ond Lee College; KASSIAN KOVALCHECK, Vonderbilt University; ROBERT 0. WEISS, DePauw University; VERNON R. McGUIRE, Texas Tech University; MELVIN MOORHOUSE, Wichita Stote University; LARRY SCHNOOR, Monkoto State College; WAYNE CALLAWAY, Univer sity of Wyoming; JOHN DeBROSS, University of Southern California. Members at Lorge: GEORGE W. ZIEGELMUELLER (Past President) Wayne State University; JEAN CORNELL, Dovidson College, WOODROW W. LEAKE, JR., University of Vermont. ACHS Representative: JAMES H. McBATH, University of Southern California. Representative on SCA Committee on Intercollegiate Debate and Discussion: JOHN GREG, St. John's University, COMMITTEE CHAIRS Standards Committee: DAVID ZAREFSKY, Northwestern University Nationol Conference Committee: CULLY CLARK, University of Alobama Reseorch and Publications Committee: WOODROW W. LEAKE, JR., University of Vermont Distinguished Alumni and Service Awords Committee: RONALD MATON, University of Massachusetts. Speaker of the Year Committee: WILLIAM BALTHROP, University of North Carolina STUDENT OFFICERS President: LES SHERMAN, University of Southern California First Vice President: FRED FOHRELL, University of Aloboma Second Vice President: CHARLES ILLSLEY, Brighom Young University Secretory: CARMEN GUINN, Western Kentucky University EDITORIAL STAFF Editor: KENNETH E. ANDERSEN, University of lilinois, Urbane, Illinois 61801. Associate Editors: BERNARD L. BROCK, Wayne State University; KURT RiTTER, Uni versity of Illinois; CHARLES ILLSLEY, Brighom Young University. https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/speaker-gavel/vol14/iss4/1 2 et al.: Complete Issue 14(4) Speaker and Gavel Volume 14 Summer 1977 No. 4 THE 1978 NATIONAL CONFERENCE A major change in the scenery and some minor changes in schedule, activities and opportunities for extra-conference activities will mark the 1978 National DSR-TKA Conference being hosted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, March 22-25, 1978. Since we are centrally located, we hope that many schools will find it possible to enjoy spring in Champaign-Urbana. Champaign-Urbana is on two major interstates, one north—south and one east—west. We have direct airline service from Denver, Washington, New York, St. Louis, and Chicago and-good connecting service anywhere in the nation. Airplane fares from many spots in the nation are the same to Champaign-Urbana as they are to Chicago, even though your flight will connect through Chicago. There are' three trains a day to Chicago and one to New Orleans. Many faculty sponsors will remember the large 1973 National Conference hosted at' Champaign-Urbana. Several improvements over that conference will be made, including a two-tier housing arrangement in which people may stay quite economically in conference dormitories on the campus or make use of the comfortable facihties at the Ramada Tnn at guaranteed rates approximating those of 5 years ago. Our lllini Forensic Association, the Illinois Chapter of DSR-TKA, the Debate Staff, the Department and University are all looking forward to hosting the National Conference. We wiU be working with The National Tournament Planning Committee and its new chair. Cully Clark, of the University of Alabama, to host the best conference we can. To this end we will make some modest adjustments in the schedule to provide a less hectic pace for the events and we plan to schedule special seminars on topics of interest for those attending the conference. Since the conference dates this year include Good Friday, we will make arrangements for those who wish to participate in rehgious observances. Materials on the conference wiU be sent in late December to all chapters. For additional information prior to that time or to suggest possible improve ments and changes in your National Conference, please write either to Cully Clark at the University of Alabama or to me. Kenneth E. Andersen University of Illinois 1978 DSR-TKA Conference Director Published by Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato,3 Speaker & Gavel, Vol. 14, Iss. 4 [], Art. 1 72 SPEAKER AND GAVEL DEBATE AND A LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATION: The Forensics Program at the University of Illinois Kurt W. Hitter The University of lUmois, like many other institutions of higher education in the United States, has a long tradition in forensics which dates back to the campus literary societies of the last century. At Illinois enterprising students founded two literary societies—-the Adelphic and the Philomathean—on March 7, 1868, just five days after the University opened. When women entered the school in 1871, President John Milton Gregory prohibited the "intermingling of the sexes" in the debating societies, and the women students promptly formed the Alethenai Society. Intercollegiate forensics competition began in 1874 when the University of Illinois competed in an interstate oratorical contest at Knox College. That affair led to the formation of the Illinois Intercollegiate Oratorical Association and soon the University was participating in annual interstate forensics competitions.^ The University has consistently fostered activities which have given its students opportunities to practice argumentative discourse. When the literary societies began to decline on our campus in 1920, the Illini Forensic Association was formed and it continues today as the undergraduate student debating society of the University. Over the decades, the means for teaching rhetorical skills have changed, but the aim of the Illinois forensics program has remained that of providing practical and realistic training in public deliberation and public advocacy. The forensics program is grounded in the belief that a liberally educated person ought to speak well and write well, and that in order to develop these abilities, a student must learn to argue well. The purpose of this essay is not only to set forth the educational philosophy which guides the Illinois program, but also to describe the implementation of that philosophy and to give some concrete illustrations of tlie activities. Problems with the Tournament Model for Forensics During the 1950s and 1960s, tlie system of intercollegiate debate tourna ments seemed the best means for achieving the aim of our forensics program. Public debating (both on and off campus) continued on a sporadic basis, but it was increasingly regarded as incidental to the debate tournament as a vehicle for education.^ By 1970, however, the faculty of the Department of Speech Communication had become disenchanted with debate tourna ments. The style of oral communication encouraged at these contests had deteriorated in direct proportion to their isolation from public view. These Kurt W. Bitter (Ph.D. Indiana University) is an Assistant Professor of Speech Communication and Director of Debate at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. ^ Winton U. Solberg, The University of Illinois, 1867—1894: An Intellectual and Cultural History (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1968), pp. 193, 195. ''For example, during the 1950s Professor Halbert Gulley directed an annual series of parliamentary debates and the University radio station broadcast a weekly discussion forum presented by students in tlie forensics program. These forums, however, were ancillary activities in the debate program. https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/speaker-gavel/vol14/iss4/1 4 et al.: Complete Issue 14(4) SPEAKER AND GAVEL 73 tournaments had become increasingly preoccupied