Ed Rode
Anya Moyers, assistant director, Samuel Harless, Caleb McCurren, Zack Benz, Samuel Miller and Ryan Goke celebrate Pi Kappa Delta awards (Not pictured: Jillian Rosa, assistant director).
Murray State’s speech and debate union will spotlight nationally ranked students in its spring showcase next week.
The Provost’s Premiere is a campus showcase debate held every spring to wrap up a semester of honed skills and hard work. The showcase will be Thursday, April 24, at Wrather Museum from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Attendees can look forward to seeing two student debaters and a student speech that ranked at this year’s Pi Kappa Delta national tournament.
Ohio University hosted the Pi Kappa Delta tournament March 13-16. Murray State’s team of four students competed in the novice and open National Parliamentary Debate Association (NPDA) competitions among almost 2,000 entries from over 50 schools.
Ryan Goke, organizational communication and leadership professor, said the team had one of their best performances ever with the following ranking and accomplishments:
2nd overall in team debate sweepstakes
9th overall in individual event sweepstakes
6th in overall sweepstakes
An After Dinner speech by Caleb McCurren ranked top 24 in the nation. McCurren was one of seven novice competitors in the quarterfinals
Zack Benz ranked 5th speaker overall in the NPDA debate and 3rd novice speaker
Samuel Harless ranked 6th novice NPDA debate speaker
Caleb McCurren ranked 8th NPDA debate speaker overall and 4th novice
Caleb McCurren and Zack Benz placed 5th in the nation in the Open NPDA division
Samuel Miller and Samuel Harless defeated South Dakota State University in the final round for the national championship in Novice NPDA Debate
Murray State students made up three of the top six novice speakers in the nation
“It was really fun to see so many people come from around the country to unite around a common goal of growing themselves as competitors and showcasing the things that are important to them,” Goke said.
He said although national tournaments were a “great final test” for his students, they have been facing off against equally competitive challengers in regional competitions all year.
The speech and debate travel team competes in around four events per semester. In the fall, they traveled to the University of Alabama and Tennessee State University and competed in a virtual tournament hosted by Queens University. During the spring, the team hosted the Jackson Purchase Swing tournament and competed in the state tournament, Pi Kappa Delta and International Public Debate Association nationals.
Speech and debate isn’t just high-stakes travel competitions. Goke said students who join can develop valuable soft skills in interpersonal communication, quick thinking, and public address and showcase that development in campus involvement events like the Provost’s Premiere.
“I think it will be a really good final presentation of the work that they’ve been doing all year,” he said. “That will give people a pretty good idea of what they do and, if they wanted to join, what they could expect.”
More information about the Provost’s Premiere, past events and this year’s team can be found on the Murray State speech and debate union website.