The Marquette Debate Team will host a public forum Friday to discuss the current landscape of alcohol legislation and how it pertains to students.
The forum’s topic will be the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, centering on why the age is set at 21 years of age instead of 18. The public forum will roughly mirror the British Parliamentary Debate style, featuring three speakers on both the propositional and oppositional sides, speaking on the merits and drawbacks of the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) for a total of six, six-minute speeches.
The event will feature six student members of the debate team, and will last for approximately one hour, with much of the time allotted for audience participation. The occasion will be educational and engaging, as the topic should attract members of the student body and faculty interested in the legal and medical implications of the legislation. Albeit a highly legalistic topic, arguments presented are geared toward the average informed citizen, so legal, medical and philosophical jargon will remain largely absent.
The debate team’s public forum will continue Marquette’s longstanding tradition of collegiate speech and debate. For more than 100 years, Marquette has promoted the advancement of discussion and discourse through its numerous debate programs. Andrew Moffitt, assistant director of debate at Marquette, said Marquette has hosted and competed at both regional and national debate tournaments, engaging students and faculty alike in the pursuit of knowledge and growth.
“Beginning as the Marquette Literary Society in 1881, we became one of the first post-secondary institutions in the Midwest to organize and participate in large intercollegiate competitions, as well as hold events to discuss events and issues occurring in the Marquette community,” Moffitt said. “Over the last 133 years, our debaters have competed in nearly every type of collegiate debate offered, and the program has also served as a vehicle for students to develop skills they will need and utilize after graduation.”
The debate team is looking to grow quantitatively and qualitatively by bringing together a larger-sized team for students to compete on regional and national circuits. The public forum offers the opportunity to raise awareness of the program and gauge student interest. The Marquette Debate Team wants to engage with students and faculty on a topic that remains daunting for policymakers on the state and national level, yet poignant for all students on campus.
The event will be held in David Straz Hall 105 at 4 p.m. Friday, March 28.
Joe McAdams is a freshman in the College of Arts & Sciences. He is a copy editor for the Tribune.
