Parliamentary Debate Team places at Cornell Tournament 


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The USC British Parliamentary Debate team competed against other top U.S. schools, including Stanford, Yale and Duke University, at Cornell University this weekend. (Photo courtesy of Derek Lehman and Ashley Ka)

Entering the novice championship motion of the Cornell British Parliamentary Debate tournament, tensions were high. With shifty eyes and quickened heartbeats, two USC partner pairs anxiously waited to hear the subject. The judge announced the topic: Is epicurean philosophy the best way to attain happiness? With only 15 minutes to research and prepare their argument, USC British Parliamentary Debate partners Ashley Ka and Harshitha Dasari came out on top, placing seventh and 11th, respectively.

The USC BPD traveled to Cornell University this past weekend to debate against top schools from across the country, including Cornell, Princeton, Duke and Stanford University. Thirty-eight novice teams and 80 novice speakers debated at the competition. BPD members Veer Juneja and Anna Liu advanced to open category out rounds, placing third and fifth, respectively.

During the friendly competition, debate teams discussed impromptu topics of electoral activism, the mandation of vaccines and biblical scripture, among others.  The event was the team’s first in-person debate competition since the pandemic began. 

The first four rounds of the tournament started on Saturday and the fifth round followed on Sunday. Based on the results of those rounds, competitors could qualify to participate in the out rounds — the final round for those that gained the most points. The two-person teams are split between four positions: opening government, opening opposition, closing government and closing opposition. 

The nature of opening government and opening opposition statements are narrative and world-building-based, which help establish a winning mechanism for how the debate should be judged. The closing government and closing opposition offer whip speeches — overviews of all the arguments in the debate; they are the deciding factor in who wins and why. 

“[The trip] was very exciting. I think it was great to get closer as a group – to travel together is always fun,” said BPD Director of Membership Ka, a junior majoring in philosophy, politics and economics. “We also had a lot of success competition wise, which was really exciting.”

Partners Ashley Ka and Harshitha Dasari advanced to the open category out rounds, placing seventh and 11th, respectively. (Photo courtesy of Derek Lehman and Ashley Ka)

The team looked forward to meeting other schools and learning different debating techniques, Ka said. In preparation for its trip to Cornell, USC BPD held a practice debate weekly and practiced various drills, such as weighing mechanisms and refutation to hone their debating skills.

“We’ve been working really hard on making sure we’re communicating well; we pass notes during rounds and that building that partnership in practice has been really great, and it showed at the tournament,” Ka said.

The team members looked forward to talking to new people and experiencing new styles of debate. The days leading up to the tournament were “both exciting and scary,” Ka said, as the event was the team’s first tournament of the season.

“[The tournament is] not just about the debate,” said USC BPD president Aastha Jani, a senior majoring in communication and gender and sexuality studies. “It’s also about the larger circuit, and a lot of us have made really strong connections with debaters and other schools over the years.”

Arriving at Cornell for the BPD debate tournament this past weekend was both “exhilarating and exciting” for first-time competitor Derek Lehman, a junior majoring in non-governmental organizations and social change and communication. Lehman said he entered the tournament as a “wide-eyed ambitious Trojan.” Though he didn’t place, Lehman felt that the disposition he gained was valuable.

“Being a part of the [BPD team] has been my dream for as long as I can remember,” Lehman said. “I worked across years of community college to get to this point, and I want to be a part of this team to be the best litigator and individual I can be.”

USC BPD welcomes people of all backgrounds to participate and does not require past experience in debate — a key reason why the team has gained so many members over the years. 

Jani said they strive to form an environment around BPD that is as equitable, inclusive and holistic as possible because they feel that debate should be an opportunity to learn, and students should not be in an environment that would prompt them to be turned away from BPD for fear or intimidation.

“[BPD] is such a uniquely tight-knit community, while also being super welcoming,” Ka said. “That’s really hard to find and something that I value. We don’t have tryouts. We don’t make cuts, it’s open to everyone who wants to come. It feels like a safe space to try something new and to get up and give a speech.”