The UBC Debating Society is a constituted student club of the Alma Mater Society of the University of British Columbia. The club is also a varsity athletics[1] team with support from athletics and recreation. In 2007 the club and the university hosted the World University Debate Championships[2]. For a list of universities around the world, see Lists of colleges and universities Representation of a university class, 1350s. ... States currently utilizing parliamentary systems are denoted in red and orange—the former being constitutional monarchies where authority is vested in a parliament, and the latter being parliamentary republics whose parliaments are effectively supreme over a separate head of state. ... Debate is a formalized system of (usually) logical argument. ... The World Universities Debating Championship is the highest-profile tournament in university debating. ... The Australiasian Intervarsity Debating Championships (known colloquially as Australs) is one of the worlds largest debating tournaments, second only in size to the World Universities Debating Championship, and one of the largest annual student events in the world. ... The European Universities Debating Championship (colloquially known as Euros or Europeans) is a regional equivalent to the World Universities Debating Championship (Worlds) held in British Parliamentary style. ... The John Smith Memorial Mace (known between 1954 and 1995 as the Observer Mace) is the foremost student debating competition in the British Isles and Ireland. ... The North American Debating Championship is the premier parliamentary debating championship in North America, sanctioned by the national university debating associations in the United States and Canada, the American Parliamentary Debating Association and the Canadian University Society for Intercollegiate Debate. ... The American Parliamentary Debating Association (APDA) is one of two major intercollegiate parliamentary debating associations in the United States, the other being the National Parliamentary Debate Association (NPDA). ... The Canadian University Society for Intercollegiate Debate (CUSID generally, and SUCDI in French) is the national organization which governs and represents university-level debating and public speaking in Canada. ... The English-Speaking Union is an international educational charity founded in 1918 to promote international understanding and friendship through the use of the English language. ... The National Parliamentary Debate Association (NPDA) is one of the two national intercollegiate parliamentary debate organizations in the United States. ... Australia-Asia debate is a form of academic debate. ... British Parliamentary style debate is a common form of academic debate. ... This is a list of top-ranked university debaters from official international competitions, in any debating style. ... The coat of arms for the Cambridge Union Society, which shares much in common with the coat of arms for the University of Cambridge. ... The front aspect of Glasgow University Union Glasgow University Union (GUU) is one of the students unions operating at the University of Glasgow. ... The Otago University Debating Society (OUDS) was established in 1888 and is the oldest Otago University Dunedin, New Zealand society. ... The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a private debating society in the city of Oxford, whose membership is drawn primarily but not exclusively from the University of Oxford. ... The UCC Philosophical Society the Philosoph is the largest debating society at University College Cork, Ireland. ... The stage of Conron Hall at University College, the main debating chamber of the University of Western Ontario Debating Society Gallery at Conron Hall The University of Western Ontario Debating Society is the oldest student association at the University of Western Ontario, and is one of the largest and most... The College Historical Society (commonly known as The Hist or The Histicons) was founded in Trinity College in 1770 and traces its creation to the historical society founded by the philosopher Edmund Burke in Dublin in 1747. ... The University Philosophical Society (commonly known as The Phil or The Auto-Phil) is a student paper-reading and debating society in Trinity College, Dublin. ... The Alma Mater Society of Queens University, otherwise known as the AMS, is the central undergraduate student government at Queen’s University in Canada. ... The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university with its main campus located at Point Grey, in the University Endowment Lands adjacent to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and another smaller campus known as UBC Okanagan located in Kelowna, British Columbia. ... A sport consists of a physical activity or skill carried out with a recreational purpose: for competition, for self-enjoyment, to attain excellence, for the development of a skill, or some combination of these. ...

History

The first incarnation of the Debating Society was at the then-new Vancouver College in 1902. Their founding president, Desmond Bailey, wanted the students of the province’s first public, post-secondary institution to "readily have the skills of rhetoric, oratory, and argumentation at their disposal - giving our province the leaders that it deserves." Vancouver College (referred to informally as VC) is an independent Catholic elementary and secondary school (K-12) located in the Shaughnessy neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. ...

In 1906, Vancouver College was taken over by McGill and renamed the McGill University College of British Columbia and in 1908, the Vancouver College Debates Union was rechristened the Undergraduates’ Literary and Debating Society.

Women had a prominent role in this new Society, which had a woman as its first Vice-President. However, despite the absence of any evidence that men were overtly trying to exclude women, a Ladies’ Literary and Debating Society was created in 1910 to provide a venue where women could train in debate without fear of intimidation or ridicule by male members. "The Ladies’ Lit", as it came to be known, was a major venue for political dialogue and was very involved in the progress of roles for women at the university college.

When the new University of British Columbia opened in 1915, the Ladies’ Lit and the Undergraduates’ Lit were remodeled as the Women’s Literary Society and the Men’s Literary Society to allow the two sexes to be on equal footing. This separate-but-equal model of debating failed to gel with the student population and served to only deepen gender rivalries and take away the focus on public speaking and debate. The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university with its main campus located at Point Grey, in the University Endowment Lands adjacent to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and another smaller campus known as UBC Okanagan located in Kelowna, British Columbia. ...

The next stage in the evolution of the Literary Societies was an attempt to rejuvenate what had become not only an anachronistic structure, but also an activity of declining student interest. In the efforts to overcome student apathy towards debating, the formation of a new Literary Club was proposed--the Literary and Scientific Department--open to both men and women but "limited to students who were willing to take an active interest in the society". A concerted attempt was made to create an elite group of energetic participants in order to fulfill the society's first objective in "a province deficient in public speakers."

1917 was the first year of the Department which quickly expanded to include the Player’s Club, the Musical Society, the Chemistry Society, Sigma Delta Kappa Society, and the Agricultural Discussion Group with the then university president, Dr. Sedgewick, as Honorary President. By 1955, the Literary and Scientific Executive, as it came to be known, changed its name to the University Clubs’ Committee to focus exclusively on the governance of the different clubs and the new Debating Union was formed. The name changed once more in 1976 to become the UBC Debating Society.

Throughout the history of the Society, numerous personalities have helped form the culture that marks the Debating Society as the oldest student group at the University. One such person was the president during the beginning of the Second World War, Oliver Bailey. Son of Desmond Bailey, Oliver became president in the spring of 1939, with his first act being a public debate, "This House believes that Munich was right", referring to the Munich Conference of September, 1938 in which Neville Chamberlain negotiated for peace in Europe with Adolf Hitler. Although Mr. Bailey won the motion from the government side and history proceeded to prove him wrong, he was nevertheless one of the student voices that argued passionately for his fellow men to take up arms against the Nazis and in 1941, after completing his degree in engineering, he became a captain in the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps. He died at Dieppe on August 19, 1942 and, as tribute for years afterwards, members of the Literary and Scientific Department would say that any person debating alone was debating with Oliver Bailey. The Munich Agreement was an agreement regarding the Munich Crisis between the major powers of Europe after a conference held in Munich in Germany in 1938 and concluded on September 29. ... Arthur Neville Chamberlain (18 March 1869 – 9 November 1940) was a Conservative British politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1937 to 1940. ... World map showing Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth. ... Hitler redirects here. ... National Socialism redirects here. ... The Royal Canadian Army Service Corps (RCASC) was an administrative corps of the Canadian Army. ... Dieppe is the name of several places and events: Dieppe, France (pop. ...

Nora Coy was one of the charter members of the Women’s Literary Society and was also the first female president of the Alma Mater Society, UBC’s student union. She was a strong speaker but did not come into her own as a debater until after her presidential term when the campus debates on coeducation were reaching their zenith. The debate raged in the student newspaper, the Ubyssey, including one letter signed by "L’Homme Indigne" that declared, "we have put up with coeducation, why should we allow so many of our societies to be diluted with the weaker sex." At that year’s Closing of the House, Miss Coy found herself arguing for coeducation and integration of the male and female debating socities. To protest the letter, she replaced the traditional glass of water for herself, and her competitors, with a glass of gin. When her male opponent paused to drink from his glass and choked in surprise, she cried out, "There are worse things diluting society than women, monsieur!" The audience was so amused that the common toast amongst members of the debating societies became the simple phrase, "To Nora."

Modern Day

The UBC Debating Society is a dominant force in western Canadian debating. In 2003 the club was established as a varsity team[3]. In 2002 the club hosted the Canadian National Debating Championships and in 2007 it hosted the World Universities Debating Championships.

References

• UBC Debating Society History