Welcome Back UA Speech and Debate Team

By Alyssa Alexsonshk, Contributor and Hannah Wines, Managing Editor ‘23

COVID-19 led to many changes at The University of Akron. One change that was felt deeply by many students was the loss of the Speech and Debate Team.

In January 2020, the thriving team was coached by then School of Communication faculty member Mark Rittenour. During COVID, the university was forced by the worsening of already tenuous financial circumstances to cut personnel and programs.

The team and its coach were both lost during university wide budget cuts.

Prior to COVID, the team was excelling according to Rittenour. They were an active competitor in the speech and debate arena regionally and nationally. The team had competed in the Ohio Forensics Association State Championship every year since 2001.

Even after the budget cuts, members of the team asked Rittenour to help them compete individually. According to Rittenour, 2022 was the first year since 2001 that the University of Akron did not field a team at the Ohio Forensics State Championship tournament.

Not long after the team stopped being a part of The School of Communication, Rittenour was hired as the Business Communication Practitioner in the College of Business (CoB), where he develops co-curricular, professional development opportunities for students to work on their presentational and public speaking skills. For Business majors, the ability to present is crucial.

“Every business conference I attend talks about the importance of people being able to tell individual organizational narratives,” Rittenour said.

College leadership agrees.

“In today’s business world, argumentation, advocacy, and storytelling are essential components of success,” R.J. Nemer, Dean of the College of Business, said.

Being part of a speech and debate team helps students build and practice those skills.

“The students learn how to keep an audience’s attention, and how to explicate a complex argument, even if it’s not their own,” Rittenour said.

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Given the nature of his new position and his experience coaching a winning team, it seemed only natural that forensics and the speech and debate team would provide the co-curricular opportunities the College of Business was looking for.

The Speech and Debate Team at The University of Akron is making its comeback in the College of Business with its original coach, Rittenour who is also Ohio Forensics Association President as well.

“We’re happy to offer intercollegiate speech and debate as part of our comprehensive professional development programming,” Dean Nemer said.

He sees the experience as valuable and so do the many corporate community partners that collaborate with the College of Business.

“The students on the team are refining their skills in oral and written communication, as well as critical thinking, all of which our corporate connections view as vital for professional contexts and for life,” Nemer said.

With the support of college leadership, the team made a triumphant return to the state championship.

On Friday, Feb. 17 and Saturday, Feb. 18, the team competed at the Ohio Forensics Association State Championship Tournament, which was held at John Carroll University.

“For us this year was a little bit different because we only have one student on the team that was on the Speech and Debate team at the college-level previously,” Rittenour said.

The remainder of the students on the team are new recruits to college level speech and debate, who, despite the team’s new home in the College of Business, come from across campus.

At the Championship, the team earned second place in the state of Ohio and won the Top-Quality Team Award, which is determined by a team’s total points divided by their number of entries.

“I was really happy about the second-place overall finish against some larger teams,” Rittenour said. “Coming back after several years and earning second place plus the quality award was a real boost of confidence for the young team we have.”

In addition to the second-place finish, several students qualified for nationals in multiple categories. All eight team members placed in the top six overall finishers of at least one event in the Varsity State Championship.

Ben Kissinger a first-year philosophy, political science, and economics major, was named state champion in International Public Debate and Broadcast Journalism. Max Schroeter, a senior, was named state champion in after dinner speaking and was the second place overall top speaker at the tournament.

Current team members are supply chain management major Blake Biedenbach; business data analytics major with a marketing concentration, Karissa Chin; philosophy, political science, and economics major Benjamin Kissinger; psychology and biology major Isaac Machar; chemical engineering major Cecilia Mainzer; history major Lacy Nicholas, bioscience major Iris Renna; and media studies major Max Schroeter.

When asked about her favorite part of being on the Speech and Debate Team, Karissa Chin had a tough time selecting just one thing.

She first mentioned the opportunity to travel. “Being on the team has given me travel experience – at no extra cost – that I would not normally have access to,” Chin said.

The team budget covers student travel, and the team travels to competitions frequently.

She then spoke about the communication skills she learned on the team, and the improvement in her skills that she saw over the course of the season.

“The activity will improve your communicative abilities,” Chin said. “Wherever you end up working, voicing your ideas in a way that people will listen is critical for your success and often the company’s [success as well].”

That’s not just conjecture. Chin has heard directly from alumni about what it means to have Speech and Debate on their resume.

“There are also several instances I’ve heard from alumni in which employers focus on their participation in the activity when considering them for employment, ultimately landing them the job,” Chin said.

When it came down to it, Chin finally identified her favorite part of being on the Speech and Debate team.

“I also love the team,” she said. “We are a small but mighty force of eight, hoping to expand, and the conversations we have are truly memorable. So, my favorite part is definitely the people I participate with.”

Chin is proud of what the team has accomplished, and so is the CoB.

“Our College of Business leadership is ecstatic about the CoB Speech and Debate Team’s successes this season,” said Dean Nemer.

Welcome back Speech and Debate. You were missed.

The University of Akron Speech and Debate Team is open to all undergraduate students. Those interested in joining should contact Mark Rittenour at mritten@uakron.edu for more information.

Assess with SASS

Congratulations

—and thank you—

2023 Assessment All-Stars

Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences

Jordan Renna, Department of Biology: PhD Integrated Bioscience

College of Business

Sucharita Ghosh, Department of Economics: BA Economics

College of Engineering and Polymer Science

Ed Evans, Department of Chemical, Biomolecular, and Corrosion Engineering: BS Chemical Engineering

College of Health and Human Services

Stacia Biddle, School of Allied Health: BS Respiratory Therapy

School of Law

Michael Gentithes, JD--All Tracks

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Photography By Gabrielle Rey

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