Wyoming Forensics Institute Offers National Caliber Learning at Low Cost

July 25, 2006 (Laramie, WY) -- Nearly 80 high school students from ten states are attending the 6th annual Wyoming Forensics Institute, a speech and debate camp sponsored by UW’s nationally ranked debate team and UW’s office of Conferences and Institutes, taking place July 9-29 in Laramie. The students will spend three weeks researching and discussing policy alternatives and competing philosophical paradigms.

The Institute includes students from California, Maryland, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Montana, Kansas, Nebraska, Oregon and Wyoming. These students attend labs and lectures in Cross-Examination style debate, Lincoln-Douglas debate, Public Forum debate and indivudiual speaking events. WFI graduates in the past have been champions in their respective states and have done well at both high school and collegiate national tournaments. Many of them receive scholarships to debate in college. A sizable portion of UW’s own debate team were themselves WFI graduates, including 2006 National Debater of the Year Chris Crowe and current team president William Jensen.

While UW Director of Forensics Matt Stannard is the Executive Director of the Institute, day-to-day responsibilities are handled by three co-directors: John Rief, a coach at the University of Pittsburgh, UW assistant coach Seth Ellsworth, and Emily Cram, former UW debater and coach, and currently a Masters Candidate at the University of Northern Iowa. Other faculty members include coaches from the University of Kansas, Weber State University, Denver University, Damien High School, and Macalester College.

The directors and faculty agree that the most important thing about the Wyoming Forensics Institute is its low cost. “WFI is critical for the livelihood of competitive debate,” says Cram. “With the reality of rising costs to participate in one of the most educational extra-curricular activities, WFI ensures the participation of those who would not have the financial capability otherwise, by keeping our costs low. The students at our camp ultimately develop friendships and ties to others in the region, and become very smart.”

For Andy Ellis, a coordinator of the Balitmore urban Debate League in Maryland, the low cost of the WFI means “the opportunity to get high caliber national level debate experience without having to make the same kind of financial tradeoffs that other camps force.” He added: “It also means that students from underserved urban schools can make connections with peers from rural areas.” The Urban Debate Leagues are a national coalition of organizations introducing low-income and at-risk school students to academic debate.

“Our mission is really about access: intellectual and material access,” says Stannard. “We offer this Institute at one-third of the cost of other national institutes because nobody should be excluded from the empowerment of speech and debate just because they can’t afford it. Intellectual opportunities shouldn’t just be for rich people.”

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For more information, please contact
Sheila Atwood-Couture at
(307) 766-5641 or satwood@uwyo.edu.

Wyoming Forensics Institute Offers National Caliber Learning at Low Cost

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