USC Is Arguably the Best, and Is Out to Prove It

Instead of some trendy coffee bar or lounge, these USC students have adopted a drab campus meeting room as their hangout.

Words fly in the trophy-stocked room as the Trojan debate team--ranked No. 1 nationally for the first time in the school’s history--rehearses, strategizes and pores over notes in preparation for this weekend’s national debate championships.

Two pairs of USC students will compete in the tournament at Wake Forest University in North Carolina: sophomore Marc Aquino and freshman Andy Weitz, and sophomore Greg Bevan and freshman Armands Revelins. Anyone who has not spent hours delving into minute details about this year’s debate topic--whether the United States should significantly increase security to the Middle East--might desire subtitles to understand the preparatory discussions.

The team’s 25 members and six coaches know that ESF stands for Economic Support Funds, that “aff” refers to affirming a resolution, and that “the best card in the block” means the best quote or argument to defend a position.

The bright, fast-talking students do not need a formal forum to argue with one another. During a casual conversation, assistant coach Rob Tucker challenged Weitz’s use of the word copious. Aquino and Tucker disagreed over whether the chances of crashing in a plane on an airline that had just had a major disaster were any lower than before such an accident.

Debating, students say, is more obsessive than an after-school activity.

“We’re way into it,” Aquino said. “You eat, sleep and drink it.”

Weitz estimated that each member spends about 20 hours a week in the squad room in addition to doing several hours of individual research.

The students hope it will all pay off in the last and most important tournament of the year. For the first time since the team was formed in 1880, USC is ranked at the top by the American Forensics Assn.

That put added pressure on the team last weekend as it struggled with the debaters’ chore of finding effective arguments for both sides of the question at hand.

“We’re obviously basically living here,” Weitz said this week, gesturing at the tables teeming with scattered papers, empty water bottles and hardening bagels.

A supply of caffeine and sugar fueled them through hours of discussion about how to prove that the arguments they present are relevant to the year’s topic. They also had to grapple with finding the right facts to buttress each specific argument they plan on making, such as whether a racist attitude lies beneath the nation’s Middle East policies.

The art of debate is “in the beauty of the intricacies and the hard work we do” to prepare, Weitz said.

Students scour books and periodicals in libraries and through computer online services. They cut out and tape key points and quotes to pieces of paper that they file for quick reference.

The ordeal teaches them how to research, write and improve oral communication skills, said coach David Damus. “They can think on their feet and problem-solve.”

Although the top four debaters are interested in studying law, Damus said others have gone on to medical, engineering, political and entertainment fields.

Damus and the other coaches identify talented students at high school debate competitions and recruit them for USC. Damus boasts that several high school state champions will join as freshmen in the fall.

The debaters say studying each year’s topic in depth teaches them more than any class could.

After debating through high school and college, Aquino said, “that’s seven or eight years of rigorous research.”

The students become what Weitz called “walking libraries,” keeping the files with the thousands of pages of notes long after the debates are over.

Aquino rattled off recent debate competition subjects--homelessness, health care, the environment, criminal procedure.

“We won’t forget those topics,” he said.