EUGENE–The University of Oregon’s top parliamentary debate team overcame all objections last weekend to prove itself as the nation’s best.

Senior political science majors Alan Tauber and Heidi Ford won the first National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence, held April 28—29 at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash.

Tauber, 3930 S.E. 162nd, Space 19, Portland, and Ford, 2685 Woodstone Place, Eugene, made it through six preliminary and five elimination rounds on their way to meeting a U.S. Air Force Academy team for the national championship. In its final 40-minute debate, the UO team argued against jury nullification, which is authority given to a jury to repeal laws it sees as unjust.

"This team’s well-honed debating skills, experience, hard work and natural talent made them clearly the best in the nation," says David Frank, director of the Robert D. Clark Honors College and director of academic forensics at the university.

Institutions that compete in intercollegiate parliamentary debate tend to belong to one of two groups: the National Parliamentary Debate Association (NPDA) or American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA). The University of Oregon and most western universities belong to the NPDA.

Both organizations host national tournaments for member schools, but the National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence features the best teams from both groups in an elite championship. Only the top 48 teams in the country qualify, based on their performance in a national ranking system.

Tauber and Ford had been in the top 10 nationally all year and entered the national tournament ranked sixth.

Also qualifying for the championship tournament was the team of UO seniors Michael Nguyen, a computer and information science, and political science major, 11142 S.E. 119th Court, Clackamas, and Damon Martichuski, a political science and Romance languages major, 3340 Honeywood St., Eugene. They finished the year ranked 32nd nationally.

The success of the UO teams at the national championship tournament capped off one of the most successful years in the Forensic Program’s 125-year history, according to Frank.

Last month at the NPDA tournament, three UO debate teams advanced to the elimination rounds. Alex Pederson, a senior economics major, 18846 N.W. Sauvie Island Rd., Portland, and Katie Drueding, a sophomore pre-journalism student, 828 Fairfax Dr., Salinas, Calif., joined the Tauber-Ford and Nguyen-Martichuski duos in competing with some of the nation’s top teams at that tournament.

"There is a long tradition of excellence in intercollegiate debating at the University of Oregon, and our teams certainly made us proud this year," says Frank.

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