Monmouth University’s debate team, the Debate Hawks, earned five team and individual speaker awards at a policy debate tournament hosted by the University of Houston during fall break, Oct. 10–12. Monmouth entered seven two-person teams (14 students); of those, three advanced to the playoff rounds after six two-hour preliminaries on Saturday and Sunday.
The playoff qualifiers were: 1) Juli Casey and Sophie Schaub; 2) Luciana Molina and Leslie Rosario; and 3) Michael Judge and Viktoria Stojceski. Two debaters also received novice-division speaker honors: Molina placed fourth and Rosario placed 10th.
Monmouth’s four additional pairings, with co-captains competing in the experienced division, were: 4) Aiden Fornicola and Mariami Ramirez; 5) Angela Brown and Frank Dige; 6) Julian Nicholas and Summer Billich; and 7) Giana Mirto and Gurvind Dehar.
Joseph Patten, Ph.D., professor of political science and debate team advisor, said that every team recorded at least two wins across the six-round tournament.
Approximately 16 colleges from nine states competed, including teams from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the University of Texas, the University of Oklahoma, the University of New Mexico, the University of Utah, and Baylor University. The Debate Hawks competes next in person at the University of Rochester, Nov. 8–10.
The 2025–26 American Debate Association topic is: “Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially strengthen collective bargaining rights for workers in the United States.” Monmouth’s affirmative case argued for eliminating the farmworker exemption from the National Labor Relations Act.
The team expressed their thanks to co-captains Ramirez and Fornicola for tournament preparation, and debate team alumni Mike Makfinsky ’25 and Patrick Carbone ’25 for judging and coaching support. For information about joining the team, contact Prof. Patten at jpatten@monmouth.edu.