By TANGELA JOHNSON

Staff Writer

The debate team is only four trophies shy of beating last year's record of 134 awards.

Trey Gibson, the debate team coach and instructor of speech, said the debate team just completed a tournament at Louisiana State University-Baton Rouge during the first weekend of April, and one of the many topics debated was the highly publicized Terri Schiavo case. Gibson said the debate team members must be aware of anything that can be used to defend their stance, such as the little-known fact that Oregon is the only state in which assisted suicide is legal.

"When debaters walk in, they have to know all possible sides of an issue," Gibson said.

Kris Lucas, a sophomore speech communication major, said he has a great knowledge of the issues, especially in current events.

"I'm really into the news, and I'm aware of what's going on," Lucas said. "I've been doing this for two years now."

Lucas said being a communication major has influenced the effectiveness of his arguments and his ability to detect weaknesses in the team. During the debate on the Schiavo case, he took the ethical standpoint on the issue regarding her parents' petition.

"As a parent, you are going to do whatever is best for your child," Lucas said. "We've never deemed it unethical to try to save your child's life."

Michelli McKnight, a member of the debate team and a junior political science major, said one of the team debate topics rubbed her the wrong way.

"The debate that upset me the most was 'Hating Evil is a Hateful Thing,'" McKnight said.

The opposing team, McKnight said, defined the word hate and then introduced a different definition of the word after they had already begun establishing their debate.

Gibson said this year is especially different because he has bonded with this particular team.

"This is going to be a sad year for me because we are slowly graduating them," Gibson said. "I've grown attached to this team. They are a wonderful bunch of people. I'm proud of them and I am [especially] proud of those who are graduating, too, because they meant a lot to the team."

Though the team will feel the impact of the graduates leaving, Lucas said he feels the team will still remain strong and rebound eventually.

"Next year's going to be very interesting because only five of the 16 members will be returning," Lucas said. "We'll still do very well, but it would be a little too ambitious to hold ourselves to a standard that's unattainable."

McKnight said she is very concerned for the team in the future, but she also feels that everything will work out.

"I am so scared because last quarter we lost two people," McKnight said. "I think it's going to be a really big change for us, but we have a lot of really good novices and our varsity team is pretty good. We're going to do well as long as we apply ourselves."