By Kay Nguyen

Campus Editor

The Oakland University Ethics Bowl team found great success at the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl regional competition this past weekend.

The team was able to secure three wins and stay undefeated throughout preliminary rounds.

They were able to enter the final face-off against the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a massive near-record 54 point differential.

They went on to lose the final round by three points. With the national competition around the corner, the team is ready for another shot at capturing a coveted title.

Forensics is described by club president Christopher Darin as “performance rhetoric, so it’s more informative speeches, humorous or persuasive speech, or dramatic interpretation from a movie or something like that.”

An Ethics Bowl competition, which has roots in academia and philosophy, requires skills in forensics but is more of a debate on ethical dilemmas.

Teams are assigned specific cases to work on during competitions. For example, the OU team tackled the issue of harvesting human organs without consent.

Darin said that while the thought process is similar to that of arguing a legal case, the focus is definitely on the ethical implications of a situation.

“There is a little bit of law to it, but it’s mostly about ethics,” he said. “While the law tries to emulate ethics, sometimes the law isn’t ethical.”

During a typical sparring, the first team will offer its argument and the second will offer a rebuttal. The presenting team then is able to refute. The order is then reversed for the second half of a round.

Darin said that the competition is all about presenting strong ethical arguments and a clear organization of thoughts.

Judges come from a myriad of backgrounds. Though most are philosophy instructors or have a legal background, many other professionals offer their time and expertise.

Arguments are scored based on how adequately arguments are presented. Oakland University was able to attain a near-record point differential.

“It’s basically a record of how badly we kicked the other team’s ass,” explained Darin.

Point differentials are added up to break ties and determines the following round’s order. For example, there were three teams that had three wins and no losses just like OU.

“I’m just very grateful for not only the camaraderie of meeting three to five other people who I can talk with about real interesting topics, but also the ability to hone in on my communication and debate skills,” Darin said.

The final topic of discussion was the ethics of psychologists using their own children for testing and research.

The team was complimented by the founder of Ethics Bowl, Dr. Robert Ladenson.

He said the OU team had a very unique debate style and was the first he had ever seen like it.

He said that he felt OU had a good chance at nationals.

The OU team was created by coach Lisa Campbell, an OU communication professor. She teaches performance communication, which is like a forensics course.

Campbell’s father died a few days before the competition. She said that her mother told her to continue supporting the team and to be there for the competition because she is so passionate about performance communication.

“I think (the prior events) largely related to our success, because at that point we really wanted to do it for (Campbell),” Darin said. “We were very proud to win her that trophy.”

The auditorium was so crowded for the final round of competition between OU and Wisconsin-Madison that extra audience seating had to be brought in.

“It was a real exciting time because Oakland University has never been a big contender in Ethics Bowl before,” Darin said.

Students interested in getting involved with the Ethics Bowl team can contact Darin at [email protected] or Lisa Campbell at [email protected].

– Staff intern Christy O’Shaughnessy contributed to this report