The Mississippi State University Speech and Debate Council placed third in the International Public Debate Association (IPDA) National Championship Tournament, and Mia Robertson is the varsity division champion. Eleven members of the team competed in the debate tournament, and four members advanced beyond preliminary rounds.
Mia Robertson, a sophomore studying political science and economics and vice president of the speech team, was recruited to the Mississippi State University debate team after several seasons of successful debate in high school. Robertson said she has come to admire the competitive college debate style, which she said has a far more diverse, friendly and educational style of debate than she experienced in high school.
“IPDA on the college level is completely different than anything I’ve ever seen before, so it was definitely a change and something I had to adjust to,” Robertson said. “Once I got the hang of it, I just fell in love with it.”
According to Robertson, the abrupt change in styles of debate from the high school level to the college level required a much more “jack-of-all-trades” approach, instead of the more extended focus on one topic in high school debate. Robertson attributed much of the team’s success and her own success to the team effort and unity in the tournament and the personal growth promoted by the participation on the team.
“We are one of the most close-knit organizations on campus. I legitimately have found every single one of my closest friends through the debate team … Our environment is so, so close, and we are so supportive of each other. It is really nice to have a community like that, that genuinely wants you to succeed,” Robertson said. “If one person has a particular specialty, they will educate the rest of us as something happens. For example, our president is great at sports and knows a lot about sports, so if something notable happens, he will send it in the group chat.”
Collin Staten, a freshman mechanical engineering major, joined the debate team in September 2020 and was one of the four members who advanced beyond the preliminary rounds. Staten joined the team after taking a Freshman Year Experience course on speech and debate. He said he has found it to be a substantially beneficial activity, improving his speaking skills, critical thinking and overall educational experience.
Despite being new to the speech and debate team, Staten discovered debate to be a skill he was interested in and excelled in. He said it has become something he enjoys and looks forward to doing throughout his years at MSU.
“Debate’s a fun thing. It lets you explore a million different topics, a million different sides of that topic and you learn from some pretty interesting people,” Staten said. “There were some tough debates, and there were some really, really good ones. Each round was an honor, and I had some really good opponents. And it was nice to make it that far — to compete with people who have debated for years — whereas I am almost completely new to it.”
Staten spoke of the extemporaneous style of debate hosted by the IPDA National Championship Tournament and the topics employed. Competitors expect to debate on a plethora of topics, ranging from discussions about current pop artists, such as Lil Nas X’s recent artistic decisions, to various political issues, like federal legislation and international activity.
According to Staten, learning to work as a team, manage time and work on a general knowledgeability of current events are vital components to succeeding in debate.
“It helps to have knowledgeable teammates with previous experience. We all help each other build our cases,” Staten said. “This has taught me how to expand my horizons and how to encounter topics that I am not as comfortable with or as knowledgeable about. It helps me consider points of view that I haven’t thought about before, as well as points of view that I don’t necessarily agree with.”
The unity, hard work and skill of the Speech and Debate Council are major contributors to their recent successes in national tournaments. Furthermore, the guidance of Cheryl Chambers, the director of forensics and one of the founding faculty members of the Speech and Debate Council, plays a vital role in the improvement of the teams.
Since starting the team in 2015, Chambers said she has seen improvement in both the speech and debate sides of the club throughout her six years of leadership.
“While our debate national tournament is the one in which we had some really major accolades, in the speech tournament, you have to qualify to go to nationals; not just anyone can go. This year, we qualified five students, which is the most that MSU has ever qualified for the tournament,” Chambers said. “The students are obviously the ones that make all of this happen. We are just so fortunate to have some of the brightest minds on campus getting involved in our organization.”
Chambers said the Speech and Debate Council has risen above her expectations in this semester’s tournaments and competitions, despite the various challenges brought by the pandemic. The third-place scoring, according to Chambers, is a testament of the hard work, adaptability and resilience of the students on the team.
“We formed a student organization that developed into a competitive team about six years ago in 2015, and we have just improved every single year. We have gotten more recognition on a national level every single year, and we’ve gotten more involved on campus every single year. And, even through a pandemic, when we really thought it was going to slow us down, we had our best year to date,” Chambers said. “The whole season has been a whirlwind, and the students have been so incredible adapting to it.”

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Cheryl Chambers | Courtesy Photo

Varsity National Champion Mia Robertson.