Debate team faced gender-based prejudice

The Prospectus of the Vassar Female College states: "Oratory and debate (whether public or private) are not feminine accomplishments and there will be nothing in the College arrangements to encourage the practice of them." Yet according to Vassar, an historical account of the College penned by former President James Monroe Taylor and Classics professor Elizabeth Haight, Class of 1894, this changed soon after Vassar's establishment. By the book's publishing in 1915, "Departmental clubs [and] the Senior and Junior Societies cultivate discussion and debate in frequent meetings, and have had annually a great open debate, one of the most popular events of the college year, where some vital subject is debated, and judgment given by three judges from abroad. This has also led to an occasional intercollegiate debate with Wellesley and Mt. Holyoke. The zeal of preparation for all these debates is one mark of intellectual interest, and large numbers are drawn into it."

Intercollegiate debate involving Vassar expanded after Taylor and Haight's publication. Archives from The New York Times show results of previous debates and topics to be debated by Vassar students against Wellesley and Mt. Holyoke Colleges and, though the prejudices of the time stood in the way, eventually male institutions. The Times article, subtitled "Princeton Boys Object to Contest with Women's College," from January 1919, illustrates the contempt held by The Daily Princetonian for the Princeton debate organization, the Whig-Cliosophic Society, for challenging Vassar to debate. The Times reports The Princetonian as saying: "We have been so kindly to the debating teams as to rate them one step higher than the chess teams, but the proposal to cross words with the petticoated representatives of this bitter rival is too much...‘Why not debate Vassar?' ask the sages of Whig-Clio. Yes, why not? Why not a knitting or sewing tilt with Bryn Mawr? Why not a pingpong [sic] match with Barnard, or a spelling bee with Wellesley, or a tea-pouring contest with Miss So-and-So's finishing school? Or, even better, why not take on the International Correspondence School for a heated skirmish in penmanship?"

"Crossing words" with male institutions remained out of Vassar's reach until 1923, when a historic event reported by The Daily Princetonian signaled a new era in intercollegiate debate: "In the first debate ever held between a university and a women's college, the Harvard yearlings were defeated by the Vassar freshmen at Poughkeepsie..." Vassar's debating opponents changed significantly after this victory. Though bouts with Wellesley continued, results of debates with Amherst and Bates Colleges, as well as with Princeton, Yale and Oxford Universities, and other schools crowd the post-1923 archives of The Times as well. Memorable headlines announcing the results or topics of some of these debates include "VASSAR WINS YALE DEBATE; ‘Denies Emergence of Women From Home Is Regrettable'" and "Resolved: That women should declare their independence from fashion," a debate lost against Harvard.

Vassar's tradition of intercollegiate debate continued after it became coeducational in 1969. The Vassar Debate Society, a parliamentary debate student organization, participated in a northeastern debate circuit until the 1980s. Vassar then joined the American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA), an association founded to provide regulation and nationwide unification of parliamentary debate organizations. Vassar's adversarial schools still included Wellesley, Mt. Holyoke, Yale, and Harvard, but now also included University of Chicago and Stanford University as well as other non-northeast institutions.

The Vassar Debate Society debates in the parliamentary style to this day. Current president of the Society Ethan Madore '12 commented on the versatility and usefulness of parliamentary debate: "Its unique feature is that you never know what sort of case you're going to argue: politics, history, literature, film, the bizarre. You really have to become a jack-of-all trades to be successful... [and] that really ties in with the whole ‘liberal arts education' we love to talk about."

Madore's involvement with debate benefits his academic life beyond the practice rounds in musty Rockefeller Hall and at APDA tournaments. "Classes at Vassar and debate are a symbiotic circle. I use information from classes, theories, facts and methods of deconstructing arguments in my debating. And debating gives me the confidence to make arguments in class," he said.

Gretchen Haughney '06, currently an MBA candidate at the Yale School of Management, also extolled the advantages of being involved in the Vassar Debate Society. "The ability to quickly and coherently express myself has proven essential in the workplace; my ability to communicate and work with team members from all backgrounds began when I joined debate and continues to resonate across both my work and post-graduate academic lives," she said. Haughney reflected that her debate experiences served as great stories for job interviews and her MBA program.

But Madore and the current Vassar Debate Society will not get the opportunity to go to the WORLDS tournament in Botswana this year. "Only if we're especially frugal throughout the year can we accept our invitation," he concluded. Despite overcoming a denying Prospectus and discriminatory male institutions, organized debate at Vassar now faces, fittingly, modern challenges. "Debate has an awkward position in the world of campus activities; in terms of our needs, we're on the line between the organizational structure of a club and a sport. There are APDA tournaments every weekend, but because of the cost and our small budget compared to other clubs at Vassar, we often have to miss many tournaments," said Madore. "Yet we're one of the few Vassar teams that actually compete at the highest tier of our event."

Despite these financial difficulties, the Vassar Debate Society had a record number of novice debaters this academic year and has been to four APDA tournaments, not including the one it held in October. Currently an intra-collegiate tournament involving Debate Society members pairing with non-debate society classmates is planned for late February or early March.