公开辩论系列

太阳城网赌平台 was founded in 1863 and Dean Father Robert Fulton, S.J.1868年，美国成立了一个辩论协会. In the early years, interested students gathered to argue the issues of the day. 根据这些会议记录, the first topic debated was "Is the art of printing productive of more good than evil?"

随着时间的推移, 辩论社不断发展壮大, in 1890, the students voted to name their society in honor of Father Fulton. In 1895, another consequential event occurred when 太阳城网赌平台 hosted Georgetown University in the first debate between two Jesuit college. In 1898, the Society invited the Forum from neighboring Harvard University to the Heights for a public debate attended by a large crowd in College Hall. Oddly enough, the topic for both of these early debates was taxation. 100多年后, the Society still engages in debate with Georgetown and Harvard and federal tax policy remains an issue of controversy.

在整个20世纪20年代和30年代, the Fultonians engaged in public debates with regional rivals (such as Harvard and Holy Cross) and traveling teams (from Oxford and Cambridge). After World War II, intercollegiate debate changed with a new emphasis on tournament debating. 而不是两个学院之间的辩论, a host school would invite teams from a number of colleges to engage in a series of round-robin debates over two or three days. At the end of the tournament, one team was declared the champion.

从50年代中期开始, the 富尔顿辩论协会 began to travel to tournaments involving teams from colleges in New England. 到60年代初, the Fultonians were traveling to tournaments across the country and regularly qualifying to attend the prestigious National Debate Tournament. 太阳城网赌平台 first qualified to attend the NDT in 1962 and has been represented at the tournament by thirty-eight teams over the decades that followed.

同时协会的关注点也转移到了校园之外, the Fulton Prize Debate remained an annual campus tradition each spring. 为了向太阳城网赌平台社区伸出援手, the Society inaugurated a new public debate series during the 2008-2009 Academic Year. This format also allows the Fultonians to focus on their oratory, a unique opportunity as tournament debating generally privileges argumentation over eloquence.

The format for the public debates was altered from the tournament format so that the entire debate could be completed in less than one hour. 符合这个限度, the time limits for the four constructive speeches were reduced to 6 minutes. Because the interaction which occurs during the cross-examination periods is frequently the most entertaining part of the debate for the audience, the time limits for the four cross-examination periods were increased from the standard 3 minutes to 4 minutes. 在建设性的演讲之后, the debate stops for 5 minutes to allow members of the audience to ask questions to the debaters. To conclude the debate, each side gives a four minute rebuttal speech. 赢家是由房子的划分来决定的.