The Wabash College Parliamentary Union defended the debate championship it won at the University of Mississippi in 2007 by again taking first place in Parliamentary Debate at the 2008 DSR-TKA National Tournament, held March 7-8 at the University of Florida.

Robert Bloss ’09 and Grant Gussman ’09 went undefeated during the tournament, winning a final round debate for their opposition on the topic “The United States should normalize relations with Cuba.”  Steve Ellis ’09 and Kevin Travis McLaughlin ‘09, the 2007 DSR-TKA champions, finished third. In addition, Gussman was recognized as the top individual speaker in parliamentary debate while McLaughlin finished fifth.  This year’s debates focused primarily on United States policies and politics as in addition to the final round topic, debaters were asked to consider topics such as “The U.S. federal government should become more involved in Latin America,” “The U.S. federal government should increase NASA funding,” and “The United States should adopt universal health care.”

Wabash also brought home two awards in individual events.  Gussman finished second in Extemporaneous Speaking while Ellis and McLaughlin finished seventh in Duo Interpretation. 

Wabash has long been a member of DSR-TKA, the only national forensics honor society.  Delta Sigma Rho was formed in 1906 by faculty at a number of Midwestern institutions.  Tau Kappa Alpha was born in Indianapolis in 1908, a student society initially formed by Butler, Earlham, DePauw, Notre Dame and Wabash (Wabash was represented at the founding by students Walter H. Linn and Lawrence Devore).  In 1963 TKA (denoting “Honor for Merit”) merged with DSR (denoting Oratory is Power).  Joining returning DSR-TKA members Robert Bloss and Grant Gussman, this year Kevin Travis McLaughlin was initiated as a new member of the organization (see picture at left).  In becoming members students accept an ethical pledge to “encourage in others a high standard of excellence in the use of the spoken word” and “never to speak so as to mislead others or to deny any person or group the rightful liberty to be heard.”  Throughout the years, Wabash has won many awards at DSR-TKA, including national championships in debate, persuasive and extemporaneous speaking, and student congress.  The DSR-TKA tournament is taking at least a temporary hiatus, to be replaced by an undergraduate research conference with a particular focus on forensics.  Wabash will remain a member of the organization.