Monday, December 12, 1983/The Battalion/Page 5
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A&M’s Debate Classic
attracts ‘better teams’
by Stephanie Marshall
Battalion Reporter
Last weekend’s Texas A&M
Debate Classic attracted better
debate teams than ever before
— including an improved
A&M squad, said Debate Soci
ety President Brent Bross-
mann.
Brossman, ajunior English
major from Bryan, said the
tournament not only im
proved its quality but also in
creased the number of partici
pants to 20 teams in the junior
division and to 16 teams in the
senior division.
This year Baylor Universi
ty took home first place in
both the senior and junior di
visions.
“Baylor is one of our big
gest competitors,” Jeff Rouse,
a debate society member said.
“They are one of the best in
the country and the best in the
coslaboi Southwest Conference ... but
lent G«tti
we’re coming up fast.
“And we’ve done pretty
well and hope to be in Nation
als, Rouse said. “This year’s
National Debate Tournament
will be held at the University
of Texas at Arlington.”
Rouse said that Texas
A&M’s Charles R. Rogun
team (the traveling debate
team), this year has traveled to
Murfreesboro, Tenn., Wichi
ta, Kan., North Texas State
University, Houston, and San
Jacinto Junior College.
T here about 66 teams that
go to the Nationals and they
are chosen by bids, Bross-
mann said.
“First there is a first round
bid in which the top sixteen
teams in the U.S. are chosen,”
Brossmann said. “Each team
submits their record for the
year and the teams are chosen
by a panel of judges.”
Brossmann said that the
next 40 teams "haser f rom
district qualifying meets. He
said the highest scoring teams
are the ones to go to Nationals.
After the district tourna
ments, if a team still wishes to
compete in the Nationals, they
then submit another yearly re
cord to panel of judges. From
these applicants the judges
chose the next top ten teams
according to their record.
“The Rogun Squad is made
of two teams this year,” Bross
mann said. “Julia Sullivan and
Jack Williams make up one
team and Jeff Rouse and I
make up the other team.”
Brossmann said that he ex
pected that he and Rouse will
make the Nationals this year.
Texas A&M sent a debate
team to the Nationals in 1981
and 1982.
The Rogun Squad plans to
be attending tournaments in
the spring at the University of
Southern California, Univer
sity of California nt 1 FV , !''*-*on.
Baylor University, Northwest
ern University, and the
“Heart of America Tourna
ment” at the University of
Kansas.
The Debate Society can
train those interested in de
bating, Brossmann said.
“There were about 100
people who signed up for the
society at the beginning of the
semester, but now we have ab-
out 10 active members,”
Brossmann said.
The Debate Society also
sponsors the Debate Forum
that has addressed such issues
as the Lebanon and El Salva
dor controversies.
“There are usually about
200 people there and we can
always use help in the society
to work the forums,” Bross
mann said.
Any interested debater may
contact Brossmann at 846-
9066.
Department store plans
to open travel agencies
United Press International
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Dil
lard Department Stores has
bought 50 percent of the Little
Rock-based Executive Travel
and plans to put travel agency
offices in most of its stores in the
South and Southwest.
The stores will conduct busi
ness under the name Dillard’s
Travel but will still be operated
by Executive Travel, which has
hired 40 new people in anticipa
tion of increased business. Sev
eral hundred more may be
added.
The in-store offices will have
a manager and one to four other
employees, said Bob Piggott,
who will be in charge of the Dil
lard’s operation for Executive
Travel.
Customers may
charge the travel ex
penses on their Dil
lard’s card as well as
bank and travel credit
cards.
The store offices will be link
ed by computer to Executive
Travel’s office in the First Com
mercial Bank building so agents
may check schedules, make re
servations and process tickets
quickly. Customers may charge
the travel expenses on their Dil
lard’s card as well as bank and
travel credit cards.
Dillard’s has 66 stores in
Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma,
Louisiana, Tennessee, New
Mexico, Kansas and Missouri.
The first five travel agencies will
open this spring in North Little
Rock, Ark.; Shreveport, La.;
Oklahoma City, Fort Worth and
San Antonio.
U.S. sixth
finish last
I United Press International
■DALLAS — A test given to a
i'ed in tki sampling of students in eight in
dustrial nations ranked U.S.
lone fin sixth-graders lowest in math
rackenriitl sills and showed mediocre
n leg sus^fcsp of science and geography,
sidingfraiacoziding to a copyright report
him. Siinday in the Dallas Times-
[hterstrea Herald.
)n. K Results of the tests, devised
aid arranged during a six-
Isegotomt month effort by the Times-
icrson wtii Herald, provided the first inter-
tspital, ' naiional comparisons in a de-
lade, and prompted a former
U.S. education commissioner to
Hclare, “We have failed here.”
I The one-hour test was de
veloped by the Times-Herald in
materialt C01isu hation with leading educa
I ■bhc i •-« s-1 a w I < »-w«- - I XT 1 ** 1
nt organina
toi's— including a Nobel laure
ate — and administered to 600
students in the United States,
;nt goveml
public 1 ’ ‘^stralia, Canada, England,
-nment, $ jf ^e, Japan, Switzerland and
tudenti . i e . den -.
is a service® ^ mencan stu dents were rep-
Jordansai a sampling from
several wK slon Hoi ow Elementary, an
roblem TO ft 1C s ^ h ° o1 affluent North
^Uas that ranks in the top 35
|rcent nationally on the wide-
-°CT- Can Hi-year-olds taking
* the test answered correctly only
I ; 25.| percent of the questions on
non wii
graders
on test
the math test, only half as well as
Japanese students, who ranked
at the top in math with 50.2 per
cent, the Times-Herald re
ported.
“This is embarrassing,” said
New York University professor
Stephen Willoughby, president
of the National Council of
Teachers of Mathematics. “It
seems that we should do a great
deal better than that.”
In science, U.S. students
scored 43.7 percent to rank
third from the bottom, with
Sweden topping the rankings at
55.4 percent.
“We have failed here,” said for
mer U.S. Education Commis
sioner Ernest Boyer, currently
president of the Carnegie
Foundation for the Advance
ment of Teaching. “One can
only be disappointed.”
Informed of the test results of
the first such test administered
in a decade, U.S. Education Sec
retary T.H. Bell said, “Oh, my
word.”
Bell, who recently called
American standards “unilateral
educational disarmament,” said
“tells us we are not requiring our
students to study enough math
and science.”
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