MSU Denver Debate Team

MSU Denver Debate
MSU Denver Debate is an intercollegiate and public debating program open to all MSU Denver students. It is housed within the Gary Holbrook Debating Union & Archive in the Department of Communication Studies. We focus on civic, community, and competitive debating activities in the Denver, regional, national, and global arenas. We provide co-curricular opportunities to engage in debate as a form of civic education animated by skills development in critical thinking, dialogic ethics, deliberative decision-making, argumentation, and presentational speaking. We help our students build skills in leadership, critical thinking, and decision making that prepare them for their future careers. Our primary goal is to promote professionalization, civic life, and democratic culture at MSU Denver.   

Due to our amazing advocates and excellent student leadership, in 2020 MSU Denver Debate students received an honorable mention at the Schuman Challenge, a national competition hosted by the Delegation of the European Union to the United States. This accomplishment was featured in the university’s magazine, MSU Denver’s RED. Our students also published an account of their experience preparing for and competing at this event in the journal Orbis. Since 2020, MSU Denver Debate has participated in numerous competitions including the Lafayette Debates at George Washington University, the Social Justice Debates at Rochester University, the Holistic Justice Challenge at Cal Poly SLO, and the Sierra Sustainability Summit at Yosemite National Park. In 2024, MSU Denver Debate members helped to design and participate in a panel on debate as a tool to promote social justice at the National Communication Association conference in New Orleans. This panel received the Top Panel in Argumentation & Forensics award. As part of their work on this panel, they partnered with Ken Newby of Morehouse College, founder of the Social Justice Debates.

In addition to regularly attending competitions, we have also hosted tournaments for the Denver Urban Debate League (a local nonprofit that supports high school debate throughout the city), the Yaatly Online Debating League (a national collegiate debating association), and the Rocky Mountain Debating Championship (in collaboration with the University of Denver). This semester, we are co-hosting the Transatlantic Dialogues with the Ecole de Guerre, the United States Airforce Academy, and the University of San Francisco. 

Beyond our interest in tournament competitions, we also host public debates for our campus community with partners such as the Denver Urban Debate League, IDebate Rwanda (a nongovernmental educational organization focused on teaching debate throughout East Africa), the National Communication Association’s Committee on International Discussion and Debate’s British Tour of the U.S. (featuring students from Britain who travel throughout the U.S. and engage in exhibition debates), and the Irish Debate Series (founded by our former director, Gary Holbrook, to support the annual travel of Irish students throughout the U.S. for exhibition debates). By hosting these events, we provide opportunities for faculty, students, and staff at MSU Denver to experience debate as a civic and public performance that helps build democratic communities.

Your Support 
We are asking our friends, colleagues, and other stakeholders to help support our activities by donating to MSU Denver Debate today! Your donations will go to hosting on-campus events, supporting student travel to competitions, and other related activities that benefit MSU Denver as a whole. 

Anyone who donates $50 or more will receive an MSU Denver Debate commemorative mug! 

Please also consider sharing our project with your social network as we are an ever-growing organization and are always looking for more support. We are also looking for new members! Thank you for your consideration and we hope to see you at some of our events this semester!