Civic Debate

Male, Seaver student holding a mic and speaking to a room at Seaver College

Pepperdine is proud to participate in the Civic Debate Conference, which emphasizes service, engagement, public speaking, and argument that goes beyond the ordinal yes/no debate dynamics.

Civic Debate

Fall 2019

October 4-5 Social Justice Debates Fall Opener, Morehouse College, Atlanta, GA
October 19-20 What We Owe Each Other, Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia
October 26-17 St. Ignatius Dialogues, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA
November 9-10 One Person, No Vote Deliberations, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
November 23-24 Social Justice Debates tFall Championship, George Washington University, Washington DC

Spring 2020

January 19-20 Social Justice Debates National Championship, Morehouse College, Atlanta, GA
January 24-25 Conference on Criminal Justice Reform, Claremont Colleges
January 25-26 Public Debate Program Championship, Claremont Colleges
February, Royal United Services Institute & Ecole de Guerre Deliberations on Climate & Security, Paris, France
March Schuman Challenge, EU Delegation, Washington DC
March 7-8 International Humanitarian Law Debates, Claremont Colleges
April Western Society of Professional Journalism Debates, SPJ Regional Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii
April Lafayette Debates National Championship, Embassy of France, Washington DC

2019 Accomplishments

3rd Place Overall Team: AJ Muonagulo, Caelen Freschetti, Danica Christy
5th Place Speaker: AJ Muonagulo
10th Place Speaker: DAnica Christy

Global Debate Series

In light of the global pandemic and Pepperdine University sending its students home, Waves Debate wanted to create conversation that was accessible to everyone despite the distance that divided them.

First Online Debate

Held April 21st at 5pm PST

The first online debate to be hosted over zoom, and then subsequently posted on the Waves Debate Youtube channel was over the motion: Which presidential candidate has the most effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic? There were three debaters, Samantha Miller, Courtney Deaver, and Hannah Kate Albach, who each took on defending Biden, Trump, and Sanders plans respectively. Each debater would give one opening speech, and one rebuttal speech in which they must recognize the common ground they shared with the other debaters, at 5 minutes each. Roughly by April 14th, all teams were required to share their case material so that they would have the chance to identify commonalities between the three sides. In addition to their preparation, the social media chair and communications chair spread the zoom link and time to both the team and the Pepperdine community while the on-campus chair focused on organizing the debaters and hosting the event.

Second Online Debate

Held May 18th at 9am PST

The second online debate was hosted in a similar format, with largely the same preparation. This time, however, Waves Debate partnered with iDebate Rwanda to analyze the impact of technology on relationships. Each Waves Debater was partnered up with a member from iDebate Rwanda to comprise the three teams in the debate: technology is beneficial, technology is detrimental, and technology can be supplemental. The partners were as follows: Courtney Deaver & Robert Mugisha, Luke Sides & Elnaam Umutoni, and Samantha Miller & Jerry Minega. Each team was provided with an opening speech and rebuttal speech, each to be 5 minutes in length. As before, teams were expected to provide their cases in advance so that key arguments could be identified by each team. In addition to the debaters preparation, the social media chair and communications chair advertised and collaborated with iDebate Rwanda on promotional materials while the on-campus chair coordinated with the league coordinator for iDebate, Bangaly Diakite, on overall debate logistics and hosting duties.

Spring 2020

Zoom Debate

iDebate Rwanda