Ithaca College

From September 23rd through the 26th the British National Debate Team visited Ithaca College.  Ithaca was the second stop on the Brits tour of the United States. 

Oxford University graduate Lewis Iwu and Cambridge graduate Mary Nugent will visit fourteen states in the course of the next two months. Both the British debaters had impressive credentials – Lewis won the World Championships in 2008 and Mary was the director of Cambridge’s Debating Society. The visitors sat in several class sessions and the subject of the relative costs of education in the UK and the US sparked lively conversation – Lewis and Mary being shocked at how expensive secondary education is in the US while Ithaca students were equally as shocked at how little it costs to go to Oxford or Cambridge (all Universities cost the same in the UK).  On Friday evening the British Team participated with Ithaca College Junior, Brian Rank (Journalism) in a panel discussion of the Ground Zero Mosque controversy organized by the Progressive Discourse Project. On Sunday night there was a public debate with the Ithaca College Debate Team.  First year students Kayla Reopelle (Documentary Studies) and Marcy Weber (Honors, Exploratory) defended the proposition that “Tony Blair is war criminal” in a lively and well attended debate.The debate was chaired by Ithaca College Senior and Debate team Captain Heike Domine.