The Bates College debate team ranks 15th internationally, according to an unofficial tally of more than 400 teams competing in the World Universities Debating Championships.

The rankings are calculated by adding together the points (i.e. 3 for a win, 2 for second place, 1 for third place and 0 for fourth place) won by each team representing a college or university over the previous five competitive Worlds for that institution.

Bates competitors accumulated a total of 223 points while competing at World Championships in Dublin, Ireland (2006), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2005), Singapore (2004), Stellenbosch, South Africa (2003) and Toronto, Canada (2002).

“We are the third domestic team ranked on the world’s debate platform, upstaged only by LaVerne University [in 14th place with 232 points] and Yale [in 11th place with 260 points],” says Vaibhav Bajpai ’07 of Calcutta, India, publicity director for the Brooks Quimby Debate Council. Oxford and Cambridge universities top the international list with 483 and 482 points respectively.

Bates debaters have completed a fall season with impressive standings. The team of Brendan Jarboe ’08 of Acton, Mass., and Bajpai ranks as 14th on the domestic intervarsity debate circuit. Alix Melamed ’10 of New York, N.Y., is eighth best novice speaker in the nation, and Michael Neville-O’Neill ’07 of Rowley, Mass., is currently ranked as the nation’s 48th best speaker.

This fall, Bates debaters have traveled abroad to tournaments at Cambridge, accompanied by Andrea Curtis, the new assistant director of debate at Bates, and to Oxford, Newcastle and Durham, United Kingdom, accompanied by coach and director of debate Bryan Brito. The teams of Ryan Creighton ’07 of Lyme, N.H., and Neville-O’Neill, and Jarboe and Louis Dennig ’07 of Woodland Hills, Calif., debated at Cambridge. Rachel Pool ’07 of Mountain View, Ark., and Dylan Morris ’07 of Bloomington, Minn., along with Arianne Mandell ’09 of Amherst, N.H., and Tamara Wyche ’08 of Baltimore, Md., competed at Oxford. Mike Smilowitz ’08 of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Nathan Place ’09 of New York, N.Y., and Geoff Shaughnessy ’09 of Hanover, N.H., and Joe Drury’ 09 of Kalsipell, Mont., debated at Newcastle and Durham.

Bates follows its strong autumn showing with a trip to this year’s Worlds in Vancouver from Dec. 27 through Jan. 4. Bates will send teams composed of Creighton and Neville-O’Neill and Jarboe and Bajpai, as well as Denning and Casey Pfitzner ‘ 07 of Spotsylvania, Va.; and Matt Robinson ’07 of Washington, D.C., and Dan Berman ‘ 08 of Winchester, Mass. Brito, Curtis, Shaughnessy and Drury will accompany the debaters as judges.

“We are sending some nationally ranked debate teams to the Worlds this year with the hope that we can climb even higher in the rankings,” says Bajpai. He attributes the team’s ascent in world and domestic rankings to the college’s consistent commitment to the tradition of debate and civil discourse.

Meanwhile, closer to home, Bates debaters Neville-O’Neill and Creighton traveled to Colby College in November for what the two schools hope will be the first of a series of debates. The topic, “Foreign combatants captured and detained by the U.S. government in the ‘war on terror’ are entitled to all legal protections offered in international POW treaties,” made for a hotly contested discussion. “We won the audience’s vote by an overwhelming majority,” Bajpai says.

The Brooks Quimby Debate Council hosts the North American Debating Championships Jan. 26-28, 2007, at Bates College. Known as “NorAms,” the competition is the top debating championship in North America, held on an alternating basis in the United States and Canada since 1991.

On the heels of impressive performances by its debaters in the United Kingdom last month, Bates College sends five teams to this year’s World Universities Debating Championships in Dublin, Ireland, from Dec. 27 through Jan. 4.

It is the biggest contingent the Brooks Quimby Debate Council has sent abroad in many years, says council publicity coordinator Vaibhav Bajpai, a junior from Calcutta, India. The traveling team’s size, he says, reflects its “growth both in numbers and in talent.”

Accompanied by debate coach Bryan Brito and three student judges (junior Rakhshan Zahid of Karachi, Pakistan; senior Katie Celeste of Croton, N.Y.; and junior Matthew Robinson of Washington, D.C.), the Bates squads will compete against more than 300 international teams. Bates pairs competing in Dublin are: senior Adrienne Maxwell of Somers, Mont., and senior Jon DeCarlo of Poland, Ohio; juniors Michael Neville-O’Neill of Rowley, Mass., and Ryan Creighton of Lyme, N.H.; Bajpai and Casey Pfitzner of Spotsylvania, Va.; senior Jeremy Fisher of Mount Kisco, N.Y., and senior Michael Metzger of Wellesley, Mass.; and sophomore Brendan Jarboe of Acton, Mass., and junior Robert Yamartino of Middlefield, Conn.

In mid-November, Bates traveled to intervarsity debate tournaments in Newcastle upon Tyne and Durham, both in England, where more than 60 teams and 120 debaters participated. The Bates team of Creighton and Neville-O’Neill won the Durham tournament and reached the finals in Newcastle. Pfitzner and Bajpai placed 12th in Durham, where Bates debaters were recognized as among the top speakers.

The team’s November victories were followed by a solid performance in early December at Cambridge University, where DeCarlo and Maxwell placed 20th in a field of 88 teams. The Bates team of Zahid and Celeste placed 31st.

“It’s very satisfying as a debater to be able to cross the Atlantic and triumph against universities such as Oxford and Cambridge,” Bajpai says. “We’ve learned a lot and are very optimistic about the Worlds in Dublin. The debate council has matured and these accomplishments are evidence of that maturity.”

From left to right: Juniors Vaibhav Bajpai, Ryan Creighton and Michael Neville-O’Neill prepare for a November debate tournament in Newcastle upon Tyne.

As a warm-up for a Bates College-hosted national debate tournament, the Brooks Quimby Debate Council debated Harvard University on the issue “The United States has a moral obligation to spread democracy around the world.” The Bates team argued the affirmative on Thursday evening, March 10, in front of a standing-room-only crowd in Chase Hall Lounge.

Vaibhav Bajpai ’07, Ryan Creighton ’07 and Adrienne Maxwell ’06 represented Bates, while Arianna Kelly, Jason Wen and David Kimel debated for Harvard. Both sides made eloquent and persuasive cases in a verbal duel Bajpai called “an impressive display of rhetorical fireworks.”

Several audience members joined in the debate by standing to speak in support of either team. As judges, the crowd — sporting Bobcat pride but clearly split on the issue under consideration — managed a display of neutrality by calling the competition a draw.

Thursday’s one-on-one with Harvard was followed by a weekend debate tournament featuring some of the country’s top squads. Competing were 60 debaters composing 30 teams from Amherst, Boston University, Bowdoin, Brandeis, Brown, Fordham, Franklin Pierce, Hamilton, Harvard, MIT, Smith, and UMass-Boston. As organizers of the tournament, Bates debaters did not compete.

Several weeks ago, the Bobcats claimed significant victories at a Bowdoin-sponsored tournament attended by Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown, Colby, Brandeis, Boston University, Amherst and Smith. The Bates team of sophomores Casey Pfitzner and Vaibhav Bajpai placed third in the varsity division, while Ryan Creighton ’07 placed second in the varsity speaker category. In the novice category, Brendan Jarboe ’08 placed first as speaker and secured a first place in the team category with partner Robert Yamartino ’07.

A significant number of other Bates debaters placed in the competition. Varsity team winners included sophomores Creighton and Mike Neville-O’Neill (sixth); Ben Reed ’08 and Christopher Abbott ’07 (seventh); and seniors Andrew Jarboe and Christopher Laconi (eighth). Varsity speaker awards went to Bajpai (fifth); Neville-’O Neill (seventh); Casey Pfitzner (eighth); and Andrew Jarboe (ninth).

Additional novice prizes were awarded to: sophomores Lou Dennig and Nikolas Dettman (third); Rachael Pool ’07 and Stacy Layton ’05 (fourth); and David Kelly ’08 and Claire McClintock ’07 (fifth). Also placing in the novice speaker category were Reed (fourth) and Yamartino (fifth).