December, 2015
Universities Debate League.
WCM-Q’s Debate Club is off to a flying start this season, having won the first two tournaments staged so far in the 2015-16 Qatar Universities Debate League.
The club emerged victorious from the first tournament of the season, hosted at WCM-Q in October, and topped the leaderboard again in November’s contest at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar.
The double victory puts the WCM-Q debaters in a strong position to win Qatar Universities Debating League (QUDL) as there are only two more tournaments left to play, both of which will take place in the spring/summer 2016 semester, followed by the finals at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar in April.
Eman AlMosleh, second-year medical student and president of the WCM-Q debate club, said she was thrilled by the wins.
“We are really happy to have had such a brilliant start and I’m very impressed by the dedication of everyone on our team,” she said. “The most pleasing thing about our success is the fact that we didn’t just put our established debaters forward; instead, we gave new club members and freshmen a chance to compete and they rewarded us by training extremely hard and performing incredibly well.”
In the first tournament, WCM-Q entered five teams and secured first place with a total of 15 points, versus 12 points each for CMU-Q and Texas A&M University at Qatar in joint second. In the second tournament, WCM-Q entered three teams and again won with 15 points, with Texas A&M second on 12 and Qatar University finishing in third with 11 points.
All university debates in Qatar are conducted according to the British Parliamentary format, which pits four two-member teams against one another as they argue either for or against a motion put before them.
Although debates are contested in pairs, debaters are also scored separately and WCM-Q students have performed well in the individual standings. In the first tournament, Ahmad Almeer (med 4) was the highest scoring debater, with Eman AlMosleh in third place. In the second tournament, Ahmed Almeer was again first, with Amina Kunnummal (pre-med 1) placing fourth.
Motions debated so far this season have included: This house would ban all medical procedures or cosmetic products intended to change an individual's racial appearance, This house would ban research into technologies designed for the purpose of extending human life indefinitely, and This house believes that feminist organizations should not accept male members.
Eman said: “We have some really talented debaters in the club and I am really excited about our chances of winning the league overall. We are not getting carried away but we are confident we can do well.”
Before the final two tournaments, several members of the Debate Club will have a chance to draw some inspiration from the ancient world, where the art of oratory was highly prized, when they travel to Thessaloniki, Greece in December to compete in the World Universities Debating Championship.
Eman paid tribute to Dr. Rodney Sharkey, associate professor of English and founding faculty of the Debate Club.
Eman said: “Dr. Sharkey has been absolutely inspirational and all of our success has been thanks to his guidance and support. We are all very grateful to him for taking time out of his very busy schedule and personal time to travel with us, and offer his support and encouragement.”
QUDL RESULTS
Tournament 1
| Rank | University | Cumulative Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | WCM-Q | 15 |
| 2 | CMU-Q | 12 |
| 2 | Texas A&M | 12 |
| 4 | QU | 11 |
| 5 | CAN-Q | 6 |
Tournament 2
| Rank | University | Cumulative Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | WCM-Q | 15 |
| 2 | Texas A&M | 12 |
| 3 | QU | 11 |
| 4 | Georgetown | 7 |
| 5 | CMU-Q | 6 |
| 5 | NU-Q | 6 |
| 7 | Stenden | 3 |
| 8 | CAN-Q | 1 |
in the first two tournaments staged so far.
