Truman Week Activities
The Importance of Truman Week Balance The function of Truman Week is to orient you to a range of campus activities and your academic experience. We work very hard to make sure that Truman Week activities DO NOT conflict with required, or highly recommended, activities of the Residential College Program. Multiple events have been scheduled to ensure that everyone who is interested in forensics should be free to make some informational events. HOWEVER, people who are seriously interested in competing need to make every effort to attend the events highlighted on the schedule has required or highly recommended--particularly the Tuesday evening all-team meeting and (if competing in debate) the Wednesday evening Debate Diagnostic session. We also strongly recommend that everyone attend the team picnic on Sunday. Forms and Information for Fall 2009 Truman Week Activities Students who know they will be joining the team are encouraged to complete the following forms before arriving on campus. DO NOT submit these forms prior to July 2009, as policies sometimes change.
Scholarships Visit our Scholarships page here. |
Frequently Asked Questions About Recruitment Q: What kind of debate activities does your team participate in? A: Increasingly we are more and more involved in NFA Lincoln-Douglas debate. This event uses a year-long policy topic similar to high school policy debate. Its chief advantage is that the national championships for LD are held at the same national tournament as individual events, allowing students to do both. We also participate in NPDA-style parliamentary debate ( http://www.parlidebate.org ), which is now the largest of America 's intercollegiate debating leagues. Parliamentary debate shares many theoretical characteristics with policy debate, however it lacks the evidenced-based approach to supporting arguments. For most of our debaters parliamentary debate has become a secondary debate event. Q: I heard you don't do individual events. Is that true? A: NO! NO! NO! :-) We get this one a lot. We participate in the full range of American Forensic Association Individual Events. This includes five oral interpretation events, four public address events, and two kinds of limited preparation events (extemp and impromptu). Our program is often mistakenly assumed not to have individual events because our debate program has earned a lot or recent success. However, we have had multiple national finalists in individual events in recent years, three recent national champions (Pi Kappa Delta and Delta Sigma Rho honoraries), and a fourth place finish at Interstate Oratory. Q: I've heard you make people do both debate and individual events in order to compete. Is that true? A: It was required at one time, and we still encourage it. However, students may specialize. Most do, in fact. Our experience is that students who do both activities tend to be stronger in both. We call this “cross-training in forensics.” Additionally, nearly all of the tournaments we attend offer both debate and individual events. Our preference is for students to do both, but most students each year do eventually specialize in one area more than the other. Because Lincoln-Douglas is offered at individual events nationals (NFA), we strongly encourage students who do Lincoln-Douglas to have at least some individual events. Q: Where does the team travel? A: Our travel plans change from year-to-year based on the location of the two national championship tournaments. As of this writing, we know that the 2010 IE nationals (NFA) will be at Ohio University. NPDA will be in Lubbock, Texas, at Texas Tech University. Generally speaking, we travel a heavy Midwestern circuit (Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas), usually visit Colorado once or twice a year, and make at least one trip to the west coast each season (usually California or Oregon). In previous years we have visited Maryland , Florida , Georgia , Michigan , Ohio , Indiana , Kentucky , Illinois , Minnesota , Texas , Kansas , Colorado , Wyoming , Arizona , California and Oregon. We have also had limited competitive experience in Canada. Q: How successful are your competitors after graduation? A: Our alumni play important roles in higher education, government, medicine, public education, scientific research, and law. Recent alumni have attended law school at the Harvard, the University of Texas, New York University, Hofstra, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and the University of South Dakota. One of our recent graduates is attending St. Louis University Medical School, studying to be a Cardio-Thoracic Surgeon. One of our 2000 NPDA National Champions is currently a PhD candidate in political science and on a Fulbright Fellowship in Moldova, while his former partner is a PhD student in rhetoric at the University of Kansas. Other alumni are college professors in a range of fields. We have alumni who are business leaders, accountants, and bankers, and clergy as well. Two members of the coaching staff, now holding PhDs, once competed for Truman. Q: Do freshmen get to travel much? A: Freshmen get to travel as much as any other team member does, regardless of class rank PROVIDED they are making the appropriate effort. Truman freshmen have been in quarterfinals of debate nationals twice and finals of IE nationals. All we care about is whether you work and make a continued effort to grow. That being said, it is sometimes necessary for freshmen students to learn more about competition before they can be sent to some of the more high-caliber competitions. This has much less to do with rank and much more to do with personal growth. Q: What if I don't have any experience, or am not as competitively successful as other students? A: There is a natural limit to how many students we can travel in a given season. The "magic number" if you will is about 14-16 debaters (7 or 8 NPDA teams) and around a dozen individual events competitors. Some seasons have seen larger or smaller teams, but we never want the size of the team to exceed a number that can be coached effectively. Thus, students who are unprepared may not travel right away. In recent years we have learned that we can improve the growth of some students by involving them in on-campus debate competitions or by starting them at more regional, small-scale competitions. Does this mean students with no high school experience shouldn't compete? Absolutely not! We have had students with no prior experience who have made it to elimination rounds at nationals their freshmen year. But students should also be realistic and understand that, like any learning process, growth can take time--even for experienced students. Q: What do I need to do to join the team at Truman? A: Send a short e-mail or letter to the Director of Forensics at kscholten@truman.edu . Include in the e-mail your full legal name, home address, phone number and e-mail. If you have additional means of contact (cell phone, instant messenger, etc.) please include these as well. We aim to use these communication mechanisms to get to know you better during the summer and help you better prepare for your arrival in the fall. You will receive an e-mail in the late spring or early summer asking you to indicate what your likely event preferences are (especially if your primary focus is individual events). Further e-mails will come before Truman Week (the orientation period for the University). We will also ask you to send us a photo and brief biography during the summer that we can put on the team website to help the team get to know each other better. IMPORTANT: First priority for placement on the team is given to qualified students who contact us prior to the beginning of the school year. We CANNOT guarantee the availability of competitive opportunities to students who come to our attention after Truman Week (orientation week). Generally speaking, the first tournament of the season occurs about two-three weeks after the beginning of school, so some preparatory work--particularly with partner pairings--is necessary. Q: Are there try-outs to join the team? A: Yes. We prefer to call them “diagnostics,” as they are much more about assessment and placement and much less about selection. Generally speaking, our budget allows us to maintain a team not much larger than 32 students in regional competition, and about 18 students in national competition. We do not, however, “cut” students from the program. Instead, we ask students who are not deemed ready for competition to allow us to “redshirt” them. This means they still participate in team programs, remain eligible for Pi Kappa Delta honorary membership, and work and learn with the team, but do not immediately begin traveling. As “redshirts” become more proficient they are moved into the competitive portion of the roster. Forensics is a co-curricular activity. While it is competitive, and competitive teams do make cuts, we believe cuts should be avoided when possible. As many students now attend college for five years, this also preserves competitive eligibility—especially for students who might attempt to master multiple academic majors. Tryouts for scholarships are a separate process. For more information vist our Scholarships Page. Q: Is anyone ever cut completely from the team? A: Very, very, very rarely. Generally this only happens is someone is spread too thin with other campus commitments, misses too many practices or shows significant disregard for their commitments or team policies. Naturally, the same kind of expectations about work and responsibility that exist in athletics, theater, band, etc., apply in forensics. Q: Is Forensics compatible with other campus activities? A: Generally speaking, yes. We have had team members who were involved with student government, enrolled in multiple majors, members of numerous clubs and much, much more. However, some campus activities are generally not compatible due to scheduling conflicts. Though we have attempted on more than one occasion to involve a student competing in intercollegiate athletics, we've found it nearly impossible to coordinate practices, games and tournaments. Some theater and music students have been involved in forensics, but eventually the demand to be involved in plays, practices and concerts make tournament travel virtually impossible. Some extra-curricular organizations (campus religious groups, fraternities and sororities) have weekly events that conflict with weekend travel. However, we have generally found that students are able to manage these conflicts just fine with some advanced planning. However, unless the conflicting activity is co-curricular (such as theater or band) we expect students to make forensics a priority. Q: How do you handle absences from school? A: Truman professors are very supportive of forensics and cooperative with student absences provided they are given ample notice and students work with the professors to keep up with their assignments. Every student receives a schedule of possible tournaments they might travel to at the beginning of the semester. They are asked to share this with their professors. Additional letters are issued two or three weeks before each tournament to remind the professors of the absence. Generally speaking, faculty allow absences for university-related activities such as athletics and forensics. Q: I want to become a high school speech and debate coach. What should I major in? A: Truman does not offer a MAE (Master of Arts in Teaching) in Communication (Speech and Theater). However, students can take a heavy concentration of courses in the speech area while majoring in English or Social Sciences. This enables them to pursue the MAE in English or Social Science and later obtain a second endorsement in speech. Q: What do most forensics students major in? A: Statistically speaking, the largest major represented by applicants is almost always a tie between "Undecided" and Political Science. Business, Biology and Chemistry actually rank fairly highly as well. A large number of students are in pre-professional programs such as Pre-Law, Pre-Medicine, Pre-Business Administration and Pre-Accounting. Naturally, there are a good number of students in Communication and we find that many students in the program eventually elect double-majors or minors in Communication. Political Science/Pre-Law majors continue to dominate the team's numbers in the long-haul. Q: Can you get academic credit for being on the team? A: Yes. In fact, freshmen students are REQUIRED to take COMM 272, a 3-credit course in speech, during their first semester on the team. After that they may take up to five additional credits in Communication Practicum (for a total of 8 credits). COMM 272 satisfied the University's essential skills requirement for speech. Q: Are any scholarships available for participation in forensics? A: Yes. Visit our Scholarships Page for more information. Q: I saw a flier for MoForensics.com. What's up with that? A: MoForensics.com is no longer in operation due to SPAM problems. We hope to have a substitute in place soon. Q: What can I do to prepare for college forensics? A: Preparation depends on what you want to do competitively. We can mail you Windows Media Player compatible video clips of debates and speeches and even help you begin drafting different kinds of speeches, if your summer time permits. We can also send you sample manuscripts to read. The best education you can receive in the activity, however, often comes through websites maintained by the various forensics organizations. We will be happy to refer you anytime. Q: I would like to speak to a coach in real time. How can I arrange to do that? A: You can call our office at (660) 785-5065 or ask Admissions to schedule an appointment with one of our coaches during a campus visit. We also have a presence on Facebook at Truman Forensics Recruitment: Version II. http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=2382154562 |
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