Spring Break
Pi Kappa Delta cancels annual debate tournament due to low attendance
By: Christine Courteau
Issue date: 10/29/09 Section: News
Pi Kappa Delta has cancelled its annual debate tournament scheduled for this weekend.
The academic forensic fraternity has hosted a debate tournament at SFA for the past several years, and the decision to cancel this tournament was not taken lightly.
"We debated over this decision for a week or two before deciding to cancel it," Melissa Courteau, Pi Kappa Delta president, said. "No pun intended."
SFA competes in a form of debate called International Public Debate Association or IPDA. For a tournament to count as an IPDA sanctioned tournament, there must be at least five different schools in attendance. After talking to different teams on their circuit, it became apparent to members of Pi Kappa Delta that they would not be able to reach this number.
"Last year, a lot of teams from Arkansas came to our tournament," Lindsey Burns, Pi Kappa Delta treasurer, said.
However, this year, Arkansas Student Congress is the same weekend as the Pi Kappa Delta tournament and none of the Arkansas teams could attend. This put a damper on the number of schools that could come to the tournament.
"Our tournament was planned to be held in the middle of the Louisiana State University at Alexandria tournament and the Louisiana State University at Shreveport tournaments," Courteau said.
The LSUS tournament is usually one of the largest of the year and many schools chose to attend this tournament instead of the SFA tournament. This was a difficult reality to face for the members of Pi Kappa Delta.
"It is really hard because we have made friends with people from schools all around the nation," Burns said. "We go to their tournaments to show we support them, and it feels like a stab in the back when they don't come to ours."
Pi Kappa Delta is planning to host a tournament again next
The academic forensic fraternity has hosted a debate tournament at SFA for the past several years, and the decision to cancel this tournament was not taken lightly.
"We debated over this decision for a week or two before deciding to cancel it," Melissa Courteau, Pi Kappa Delta president, said. "No pun intended."
SFA competes in a form of debate called International Public Debate Association or IPDA. For a tournament to count as an IPDA sanctioned tournament, there must be at least five different schools in attendance. After talking to different teams on their circuit, it became apparent to members of Pi Kappa Delta that they would not be able to reach this number.
"Last year, a lot of teams from Arkansas came to our tournament," Lindsey Burns, Pi Kappa Delta treasurer, said.
However, this year, Arkansas Student Congress is the same weekend as the Pi Kappa Delta tournament and none of the Arkansas teams could attend. This put a damper on the number of schools that could come to the tournament.
"Our tournament was planned to be held in the middle of the Louisiana State University at Alexandria tournament and the Louisiana State University at Shreveport tournaments," Courteau said.
The LSUS tournament is usually one of the largest of the year and many schools chose to attend this tournament instead of the SFA tournament. This was a difficult reality to face for the members of Pi Kappa Delta.
"It is really hard because we have made friends with people from schools all around the nation," Burns said. "We go to their tournaments to show we support them, and it feels like a stab in the back when they don't come to ours."
Pi Kappa Delta is planning to host a tournament again next
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