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(12/10/15 2:18am)
Planet X is in the early stages of human development. Should it adopt communism or capitalism?
This motion was debated in the final round of the 2015 Oxford Inter-Varsity Debating Competition. On the weekend of Nov. 13, the Middlebury Debate Society sent its three most experienced debaters to compete in this prestigious event. The society is a student-run organization that brings together students who love to argue for and think about both sides of a polarizing issue.
This fall, the Society sent students to England to compete at the Oxford Tournament, Cambridge Tournament and Cambridge Women’s Tournament. These three events are among the most esteemed debate competitions in the world, bringing together debaters from many different countries.
The competitions are held in the British Parliamentary Style, a common form of academic debate. In this format, debaters are presented with the topic, called a “motion,” and assigned a stance only fifteen minutes before the debate. They fulfill one of four roles, the “opening government,” “opening opposition,” “closing government,” or “closing opposition.” In this short period of time, each student prepares a seven-minute speech that they will use to try and sway the judges. Debaters need to be ready to argue for or against any motion that is thrown their way.
Elizabeth Lee ’17 is president of the Middlebury Debate Society and attended all three of the international competitions. “What you really have to do is learn a lot about what’s going on in the world right now and understand the most prominent theories in philosophy,” she explained. Staying up to date with current events is key when preparing for a competition. “The Economist is the debater’s favorite news source,” Lee added.
The motions that were considered at these events spanned such diverse topics as the feminist movement, climate engineering and whether or not Western democracies should abandon an Olympics hosted by Russia.
“One idea that I really liked [debating] was a right to emigration,” Lee recalled. Students discussed whether a government should pay for people to immigrate to a different country if they can’t afford it themselves. The central question became whether or not the failure to fund such a trip would be comparable to forcing someone to stay somewhere they don’t want to be. “If you have a fundamental disagreement with the country you’re living in, presumably you should be able to leave that society,” Lee reflected.
From Dec. 27 to Jan. 4, the Middlebury Debate Society will be sending students to the World Universities Debating Championship. This is the largest debate tournament in the world and some of the best debaters from every continent will compete. Every year it is held in a different country. Last year it was hosted in Selangor, Malaysia and this winter it will be in the historical port city of Thessaloniki, Greece. Over 70 different nations will be represented.
“Getting to know people from all over the world that share your passion for debate is great,” Lee added. There are some clear differences in the way that teams prepare for the competition, of course. At several universities in England, for example, a debate society comes with it’s own exclusive union, grand chamber, and library. The benefit of the international tournaments is that societies like these will encounter groups that are less formal in their approach. There is more than one way to argue persuasively. “Staying in the U.S., you don’t realize that there are so many different styles of debate, and that they are all very effective,” Lee explained.
The Middlebury Debate Society also participates in events closer to home. About once a week the students attend a domestic debate tournament. And during J-term, Middlebury will be hosting it’s own event. The 2016 Middlebury Debate Invitational will take place the weekend of Jan. 16 and will include college teams from all over the East Coast.
No previous debating experience is needed to join the Middlebury Debate Society. Getting involved with the organization can be a rewarding experience for those who want to think about today’s biggest questions as well as those who are more interested in the competitive aspect. Lee explained, “It’s a lot of work, but it’s really worth it. We have a really great community. We put on social events and are trying to find ways to foster dialogue.” The Debate Society is currently working with President Laurie Patton to plan a joint event that would encourage controversial conversations.
If you are someone looking forward to debating today’s most pressing questions around the dinner table this holiday season, the Middlebury Debate Society might be just the place for you.
(09/30/15 9:06pm)
Less than a half hour’s drive from the College is an enchanting farmhouse-turned-museum called Rokeby that was once the home of the Robinson family who profoundly influenced Vermont and American history. Middlebury Special Collections at Davis Family Library now has an extensive collection of letters that offers a unique look into the lives of this influential family and their efforts as some of the state’s most famous abolitionists.
The 15,000 Robinson family letters offer a detailed, intimate record of correspondence. The letters are remarkably comprehensive, spanning four generations of Robinsons and dating from 1757 to 1962. They are on extended loan from the Rokeby Museum and can be easily accessed by the Middlebury community. Anyone wishing to read these letters should visit Special Collections in Davis Family Library and use an index, organized by letter recipient, to navigate the collection.
The letters present an opportunity to explore the lives of the Robinsons and their operations of the Rokeby farm property in Ferrisburgh, Vermont. Among Robinson family members are some of Vermont’s earliest opponents of slavery. Rowland Thomas Robinson (1796-1879) and Rachel Gilpin Robinson (1799-1862) were devout Quakers and enthusiastic abolitionists who boycotted all slave-made goods. Rowland was a prominent member of the Vermont Anti-Slavery Society and the American Anti-Slavery Society.
Rowland and Rachel Robinson operated the Rokeby property as a safe house along the Underground Railroad where they harbored men, women and children who had escaped slavery in the South. They did so openly, even offering former slaves employment on Rokeby.
“There’s a lot of folklore associated with the Underground Railroad,” explained Joseph Watson, Preservation Manager and Special Collections Associate at the College.
“Having primary source materials that refer to people in the day, participating in those activities, is rare,” he said.
The collection offers valuable insight into the nuts and bolts of abolitionist organization and activities. Scholars engaging with the letters can examine the daily life of Rowland and Rachel Robinson as they worked to enact sweeping social change and alter conventional mindsets.
Engaging with these primary source materials will prove valuable in Professor Will Nash’s Reading Slavery and Abolition course. Students will be using selected Robinson Family letters to complete original archival research.
“One goal will be to gain perspective on how anti-slavery activists in Vermont carried out the day-to-day work of the struggle,” Nash said. “The other will be to look, where possible, at groups of letters between the Robinsons and particular correspondents with an eye to uncovering what we can about these individuals.”
Professor Nash’s hope is that by utilizing the letters, his students will be able to contribute to the ongoing scholarly conversation about anti-slavery activism in Vermont.
“However, the collection is not just about the anti-slavery movement and the Underground Railroad,” clarified Watson, careful not to sell the collection short.
Rowland and Rachel Robinson were by no means the only noteworthy members of the Robinson family. The following generation of Robinsons included Rowland Evans Robinson (1833-1990), a prominent Vermont artist and writer. His writing was inspired primarily by his love of nature and his conservation work. By the time of his death in 1900, he had earned the Green Mountain State’s most beloved author award. Some of Rowland E. Robinson’s works are currently part of the “Old Friends and New: Writers in Nature” display at Davis Family Library.
Rachael Robinson Elmer (1878-1919) was likewise a distinguished artist in the Robinson family, and perhaps the most successful. She worked as a book illustrator and is known particularly for her fine art post cards of New York scenes. Tragically, her life was cut short at the height of her artistic success. In one of the collection’s particularly moving letters, Rachael expressed her concern for her mother’s health. Soon after writing this letter, Rachel became one of the millions whose lives were claimed by the 1918 Influenza Pandemic.
While the Robinson family letters will prove particularly useful to Professor Nash’s course, their application is by no means limited to the field of American Studies.
Jane Williamson, Executive Director at the Rokeby Museum, described the collection as a “gold mine” of social and cultural history. The personal correspondence within the Robinson Family Letters spans topics varying from art history and religious history to personal struggles with mental illness and alcoholism.
Rebekah Irwin, Director of Special Collections and Archives for the Middlebury College Library, believes that the letters will prove useful to scholars across all disciplines.
Today when so much information for potential researchers can be found online, “there is something intimate and rare about working directly with original, material artifacts,” she said.
The letters possess a particularly strong symbolism for students at Middlebury College. The Robinsons played a meaningful role in American history despite their rural location in Vermont. Irwin hopes that Middlebury students will be inspired by this family’s story as they consider their own involvement in today’s most prominent social and human rights issues.