Debate 9: Washington University, St Louis, MO

Wash U. is across town from Webster and we were met bright and early by Ian McMullan - a Political Science Tutor at the University and an alumnus of the US Debate Tour. Ian gained his undergraduate degree at Oxford and it was nice to hear an English voice! Alex had met Ian in Singapore during his World Schools’ days and Ian’s Father had just retired from Durham’s Politics Department - although Alistair had declined to take any of his classes during his three years. Ian gave us the full Campus Tour of the extremely picturesque main site - which included many new multi-million dollar buildings made to look like the original 19th Century buildings. The running track is also notable as it is the same one that was used during the 1904 Olympics. Wash U. is a well-endowed institution is consistently ranked as one of the top Universities in the Mid West and the country.

That morning Ian had to teach so we met up with two of his students who took us to the St. Louis Zoo, where we experienced Lions, Tigers, Penguins and a few exotic creepy crawlies! That afternoon we drove across town to the Anheuser Busch Brewery - aka the Budweiser brewery. Bud was invented in St. Louis it still hosts its largest brewery in the USA. The tour was fun if not a massive propaganda effort to prove to us that ‘smooth, crisp, refreshing Bud’ was the answer to most of our problems. This may have been utter nonsense but we but we all enjoyed our free samples at the end of the tour!

We went from the brewery to the debate, which was held in a very impressive hall and hosted by the Centre for Ethics and Human Values. The Wash U. Debate Team is quite small and student run, whereas the centre was very well resourced. We were up against a debater who was in his Senior Year and a Law Student who had participated in mock trial events across the country. We were opposing pulling US troops out of Iraq – the debate its self was excellent and well attended by nearly 150 students and faculty. After we spoke, three expert panellists offered their views on the topic. It was really refreshing to hear the Wash U. Professors (in Moral Ethics, International Law and Islamic Studies) give their opinions based on years of academic research – rather than our usual 15 minutes of scrambled wikipedia preparation…

After the debate we were taken for dinner with 20 Wash U. Faculty to the St. Louis Club – a private dining club on the 20th floor of a Downtown office block. The whole evening was reminiscent of our previous Union careers and along with the fabulous food we were entertained by a lovely waiter who looked resplendent in his Black Tie. We retired to bed full, happy and the proud owners of shiny new Washington University mugs…