Congratulations to Trond Jacobsen and the  student debate and mock-trial participants.  And to Diane Dietz for one of the most uplifting  stories to come out of the UO in ages. The students,  university and eventually society will benefit from this rigorous intellectual activity.  Debate is all that Jacobsen says it is--after more than 60 years I still remember the pro and con arguments we used at MHS  on that year's debate topic: "Resolved, the US should replace the Electoral College with direct election of the president."

This is good  history of  debate at the UO as well--Robert Clark, our great president, and former debate coach, discussed this in  his masterful history of Professor Thomas Condon.  Within weeks of the opening of the UO in 1876, the students  had formed two literary-debate societies, the  Laurean for men and Eutaxian for women.  While they became incredibly active on campus, I'd not heard they even funded that first 1894 football team as well!