Taylor Blackburn wins national title at U.S. Universities Debating Championship

2014 Apr 28

Bates College debater Taylor Blackburn of Atherton, Calif., and her teammate Jac Stewart of Keene, N.H., defeated final-round teams from Yale, Cornell and Loyola Marymount to win the national title at the 2014 U.S. Universities Debating Championship on April 13 at Purdue University.

The resolution, timely in the context of world events, was "This House regrets the continuation of NATO after the dissolution of the Soviet Union."

"Jac and Taylor put forth a tremendous effort to win the national title," said Bates Director of Debate Jan Hovden. "Their performance was stunning."

In winning the championship, Stewart and Blackburn topped some 300 other debaters from top-ranked U.S. programs.

Blackburn and Stewart won the Yale Inter-Varsity Debate Tournament last October and the Brandeis Inter-Varsity Debate Tournament two months later, vanquishing world-class rhetoricians from Yale, Harvard, Brown and McGill, among various institutions.

In January, the pair went on to the World Universities Debating Championships in Chennai, India, where they were ranked 21st in the world.

Bates' success in British parliamentary debating was matched by equally formidable achievements on the American circuit, and Bates ended 2013-14 ranked ninth in the American Parliamentary Debate Association standings.

Blackburn and her Bates teammate Matt Summers of Short Hills, N.J., finished the season as the fourth-ranked APDA team, posting top-five finishes at the largest, most competitive tourneys the nation, including tournaments at Harvard, Columbia, Brown and Boston University.

Blackburn, who is majoring in rhetoric at Bates, is a 2011 graduate of Menlo School in Atherton, Calif. She is the daughter of Jill C. Wetzel of Atherton, Calif., and Leonard A. Blackburn of Atherton, Calif.

The Brooks Quimby Debate Council at Bates College is one of the world's premier debating societies. Bates debaters are routinely ranked among the best in the U.S. while also competing internationally, including annually at the World Universities Debating Championships. The Brooks Quimby Debate Council is distinctive in that the club does not hold competitive tryouts but is open to all interested students, often developing top debaters who have had no prior experience. Alumni of the Bates program include Bob Goodlatte '74, U.S. Congressman and chair of the House Judiciary Committee; Joyce White Vance '82, U.S. Attorney for Northern Alabama; Edmund S. Muskie '36, U.S. Senator and author of the landmark Clean Water and Clean Air acts; and Benjamin E. Mays '20, civil rights leader and longtime president of Morehouse College.

Located in Lewiston, Maine, Bates is internationally recognized as a leading college of the liberal arts, attracting 2,000 students from across the U.S. and around the world. Since 1855, Bates has been dedicated to educating the whole person through creative and rigorous scholarship in a collaborative residential community. With a commitment to affordability, Bates has always admitted students without regard to gender, race, religion or national origin. Cultivating intellectual discovery and informed civic action, Bates prepares leaders sustained by a love of learning and zeal for responsible stewardship of the wider world. Learn more at bates.edu.