Seawolf Debate Program ends the year with top honors and accolades

by Catalina Myers  |   

.Monica Fast and Geneva Luteria hold up a first place trophy; a copy of Raphael's 'The School of Athens' hangs behind them
From left to right: Monica Fast and Geneva Luteria hold up a first place trophy for sweeping the competition at the Pan Pacific Championships hosted by Hawaii Pacific University earlier this spring. (Photo courtesy, Steve Johnson, Director Seawolf Debate Program Director.

The Seawolf Debate Program (SDP) is one of UAA’s most recognized programs within the university and throughout the state and country. SDP has hit the ground running post-pandemic with a banner year and an incredibly successful spring semester. 

With the return of the widely popular Cabin Fever Debates, SDP’s intramural debate tournament, the program recruited more than 30 non-active students to participate in the spring event. Recruits spent the month of February learning the necessary skills to debate timely and hotly contested issues like student loan forgiveness and whether or not the global juggernaut social media platform TikTok should be banned in the U.S. In March, SDP teams participated in the tournament, with team Cat-Tastrophe, comprising Robin Bidwell and Mina Hancock, winning this year’s event. Bidwell was also awarded the Quianna Clay Prize for Excellence in Debating.

The competitive team was equally successful, with SDP’s top team, Geneva Luteria and Monica Fast, winning two of the five tournaments the team entered this season. SDP was named the Top Team of the Spring '23 semester in their competitive league. SDP’s team efforts resulted in UAA being ranked second (behind the Air Force Academy) out of more than 20 schools in their debate league.

Additionally, this spring, SDP competed at the Pan Pacific Championships hosted by Hawaii Pacific University. Two SDP teams entered the competition and advanced to the elimination rounds. However, SDP’s top team, Fast and Luteria, distinguished themselves after placing first in every round of the competition. The two advanced to the semifinal round, defeating teams from the Air Force, Regis University and University of California Berkeley to win the championship with a perfect record throughout the competition and defeating 18 teams. Fast was honored at this year’s tournament as top speaker.  

Launched in 2011, the Alaska Middle School Program Debate League was an initiative started by SDP to promote competitive academic debating in Anchorage middle schools. The program was met with enthusiasm and was a huge success. This year, SDP continued its efforts focusing on the Golden Heart City’s middle schoolers of the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District. SDP offered remote and in-person training with Seawolf debaters mentoring over 100 students. Fairbanks middle schoolers participated with Anchorage during the Alaska Middle School Debate Championship, hosted on UAA’s campus in April, bringing the Fairbanks and Anchorage middle school debating communities together for a culminating event of the season.

“I'm very proud of the students who dedicate themselves to representing the excellence of our university,” said Steve Johnson, director of debate at UAA. “I look forward to more good news in the semesters ahead.”

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