The University of Alaska Seawolf Debate Team was founded in 1982 as part of Anchorage Community College and is the only intercollegiate forensics program in Alaska.  The program represents UAA, the UA system, and the State of Alaska in competitive speech and debate activities against students from around the world.

Intercollegiate athletic teams are frequently divided on the basis of school size or type of institution.  In intercollegiate debate, however, there are no divisions of this nature.  Consequently, UAA's debate teams face competition from some of the most prestigious schools in the world.

The Seawolf Speech and Debate team consistently has earned regional and national recognition for the University while competing on the National Parliamentary Debate Association (NPDA) circuit from 1995-2005.  Competitive highlights of this era include Seawolf teams twice making the Semifinals of the NPDA Championship Tournament, Seawolf speakers twice being named the NPDA's Rookie of the Year.  The most significant accomplishment of this era, however, is Ben Garcia and Chris Richter's 2002 National Championship at which they bested over 200 other US teams to be ranked the best debate team in the nation.

After refocusing the program from NPDA to International Style Debate in January 2005, the Seawolves garnered immediate international recognition by winning the Rotterdam Open tournament in the Netherlands.  The team also continued to enjoy national success by winning the US Universities Championships in 2005 and placing 2nd to Harvard University at the US Universities Championships in 2006.  The focus of the team's competitive season is now the World Universities Debating Championships.  At the 2007 WUDC, the Seawolf team of Tom Lassen and Chris Kolerok reached the Semifinal round, beating out teams from Stanford, Yale, Cambridge and Oxford.  This performance ranked them in the top 2% of teams in the world and as the top debate team in North America.

Seawolf Debate's success is built on a few simple principles: we genuinely value opportunities to engage in reasoned discourse, we understand world events and the context in which they occur, and we work exceptionally hard.  If you're interested in joining our winning tradition, please contact Steve Johnson or Shawn Briscoe.