April 17th Texan Debate will focus on gun policy

Rebecca Hernandez—

Associate Producer

The spring 2017 semester announces the arrival of Texan Debate, where students will have the opportunity to talk about controversial topics and important issues in American Society. Texan Debate will use the British Parliamentary model to base their debate program. The program-based forum will handle topics with civility by the Department of Communication Studies.

The Texan Debate will be held on April 17, 2017. Photo courtesy of Texan Debate Facebook page.

The first debate topic will be over Gun Policy at Tarleton State University. There will be two students to a team for each group. Freshman students have been selected to enhance the program and to discuss the topics, while other students from COMM 1311, COMM 1315 and COMM 2302 classes attend and participate as spectators.

The Director of Texan Debate and Instructor to the Communication Department, Delwin Richey, said, “We will basically go over one topic in Texan Debate over the Gun Policy on campus in terms of concealed weapons, [if] that person has a permit and a license.”

“Our department administrators became aware of this program from Chico State University in Chico California. [Their] program was based on town hall meetings that were political and they were really getting nasty. One of the city council members asked the University in Chico Department of Communication could they develop a program where people could learn to talk about controversial topics and still with civility. They developed a program called Chico’s Great Debate and our program comes off of that,” said Richey about the development of Tarleton’s debate program.

A Civic Expo will be held on Monday, April 17 with three rounds of the debate and one final round in the evening.