Team History

Quick facts about the history of the speech and debate program.

Forensics has been a part of the Towson campus for over forty years. Our earliest affiliations were with the American Forensic Association, National Individual Events Tournament and National Debate Tournament. Over the course of the program Towson University has been a shining light as a program that values education over competition. We are proud to be the first chapter of Pi Kappa Delta, the nation's oldest speech and debate honor society in the state of Maryland.

We are the most internationally diverse policy debate team in the country. We stand uniquely as a team with students from the U.S. and abroad as debaters and individual events speakers standing side by side in competition and friendship through forensics.

The program is involved in changing the course of human events through discourse in competitive contexts and in the community through exhibitions and public debates. In our Every Other Wednesday series we are spreading the power of speech and debate to the campus community. We are participants in the People Speak program of the United Nations Foundation.

Towson is also a program with an impressive track record in public debate competitions. We are History Channel Crusades Debate Contest Grand Champions and two time winners of the Madison Cup.

The program proudly celebrates its involvement with the nationally recognized Baltimore Urban Debate League. Together students who take part in individual events competition and policy debate are giving back to communities from which they came.

We are also actively involved in the International Debate Education Association offering summer workshops (The Towson International Debate Institute) and scholarships to bring International students into the world of policy debate.

Assistant Director Beth Skinner and Coach Andy Ellis are also leading Towson in to new out reach efforts through the Baltimore College Debate League, a program designed to foster policy debate among the colleges and universities in the Baltimore area.

Webmaster: Adam Jackson