With a team of four members from each academic department at UTM, the UTM Debating Club has organized a Debate League Mississauga that is expected to begin toward the end of October.
Twelve departments and academic societies have agreed to take part in the league, some of which include the political science, philosophy, and biology departments.
In an interview with The Medium, Siddhartha Sengupta, vice president of UTMDBC, stated that two members of each team will engage in a 30-minute “match” with the opposing team. The 30 minutes will include three minutes for speaker time, one minute for rebuttals, and two minutes for audience/moderator questioning per speaker.
Sengputa and Alexander Gignac, charge d’affairs and director of operations, stated that the goal of the league is to involve as many departments as possible, to have a “sense of coherency” within UTM, and to encourage the sense of campus pride.
At the end of the academic year, the final match will decide the winning team. The winning department will get the DLM Cup and certificates for each of its team members. Other awards include a Fairplay Award for Department with Most Support, Most Valuable Speaker, Second Best League Speaker, Third Best League Speaker and Best Debating Duo.
Beginning late October until the end of the academic year in April, two sessions will be held each week. Each session will have four matches.
Auditions are expected to be set soon.
