Like a Phoenix Rising from its Ashes: Resurrecting a Nationally Competitive Forensics Program
By Jon M. Croghan, Northwestern State University
Tammy L. Croghan, Northwestern State University
Paul Shelton, Lousiana Scholars' College
Timothy Gattie, Northwestern State University
croghanj@nsula.edu

Abstract

As my wife (who co-coaches) and I left graduate school for our first “real” academic positions, we thought that we were leaving our forensics experiences behind.  Unbeknownst to us, the medium-sized Southern university where we landed had a strong forensics tradition.  This university had at several different times been a national powerhouse in collegiate speech and debate competition.  For much of the 1990’s, our university was nationally ranked and even won a national debate championship along the way. The combination of an exceptional coach with limited instructional responsibilities, six-figure budget, and university recognition and support fostered an environment of forensics excellence. Unfortunately, a severe budgetary crisis, in addition to personnel and administrative changes ultimately lead to its demise. For almost a decade, our university’s forensics tradition was but a memory.  In response to student interest, my wife and I re-established the speech and debate program in 2006.  From our experiences, we offer the following advice to forensics educators and fledgling programs. 

Resources

When it comes to raising money, my wife and I follow this mantra: fundraise, fundraise, fundraise. Take advantage of both internal and external sources of fundraising. While bake sales and car washes are often fun, they are not especially lucrative. Instead make certain to get your program registered as a recognized student organization since most universities have funds specifically allocated for these organizations.  Because my wife and I were unfamiliar with our university’s system of funding for student organizations, we paid for one-half the tournaments that we attended the first year out of our own pocket. Be creative. Check the guidelines for all university funds even if they don’t initially seem to be potentially fruitful.  We gained access to university club sport money to attend tournaments after persistently (and eventually successfully) arguing that our speech and debate team met the only requirement in the club sports bylaws: participation in intercollegiate competition.  In addition to the internal university funds for which you can apply, look for external funding from alumnus or local professionals that participated in forensics or work in professions closely related to speech and debate (i.e, law, theatre, and politics).  Our university is currently in the process of creating an endowed professorship of speech and debate (to be named after the donor’s former debate coach) from a very generous former debater who wanted to acknowledge both the importance of activity and the positive impact that his coach had on his subsequent career and life. Since forensics competitors often do quite well in their chosen professions, look for opportunities to have them help continue or strengthen your program.

Recruitment and Retention

One of the primary tasks of any speech and debate coach is recruiting competitors.  Unlike established programs that frequently have forensics scholarships and well-developed networks in the speech and debate community, new programs often die or slowly fade away as a result of limited recruitment opportunities or turnover associated with student apathy or extra-curricular over-involvement. In order to overcome these obstacles developing programs must find creative ways to both recruit and retain their competitors. While recruiting from your classes can bring in some prospective speakers and debaters, one of the most successful recruitment activities we started was an annual high school forensics tournament (link to high school tournament). The high school tournament created interest in our forensics program among a high-interest, high-skill group of potential college-level competitors, not to mention it provided another avenue for fundraising. Speech and debaters tend to be actively involved in at least several extra-curricular activities which can result in burnout.  Our speakers and debaters are involved in the student government, the school media, fraternities and sororities, honor societies, etc.  With the assistance of other communication faculty, who generously donated their royalties, we created a workbook for our public-speaking text which gives us the opportunity to award a number of small speech and debate scholarships until the endowed professorship is fully funded. The value of even small scholarships to recruitment is obvious, but they also assist with retention. Forensics scholarships give precedence to participation in the speech and debate in relation to the myriad other extra-curricular activities to which our students belong.

Recognition

Nothing breeds success like…well success.  For new or recently revived forensics program being successful can make a HUGE difference on the level of funding your university is willing to give you.  While winning state, regional, or national tournaments is a goal that most coaches aspire to, the likelihood that this will happen to newer teams is about as likely as winning the lottery.  Most new teams just cannot field a big enough squad with sufficient experience to compete with programs that have a substantial lineage. So instead of throwing your students to the wolves (while being a wonderful learning experience) after which many of your speakers and debaters will never again compete, look for tournaments early in the season that have a novice division or better yet are solely novice tournaments (i.e., Tarrant County College Newbie Novice Tournament, Louisiana State University at Shreveport Red River Swing, etc.). These tournaments are usually a lot of fun, let your competitors get their feet wet, and give you the opportunity to meet coaches with whom you can network or even be mentored.  Additionally, while traditional policy debate and parliamentary debate are common fare in the South, it might also be valuable to consider Internal Public Debate (http://www.ipdadebate.org/). IPDA which holds many tournaments in the region allows debaters to be successful without a crash course in debate terminology.  IPDA gives our debaters a chance to compete and improve without the constant struggle of reshuffling debate partners to make a team.

Conclusion

In conclusion, like the dao, there are many paths to a successful forensics team.  We decided to share our experiences in hopes that at least a few of them would be valuable for forensics educators and coaches (new and old) whose love for this endeavor drives them to continue, improve, reflect, and subsequently modify it to fit the needs of their students.  We hope to see you next year!