The summer 2004 issue of CMC profiled the successive triumphs of The Claremont Colleges Debate Union—revered among the nation's best—including its outreach in promoting debate teams in middle schools and high schools throughout Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.

But the Union's far-reaching efforts don't stop there . . .

As if their own activities and debate outreach to Southern California schools weren't enough to keep director of forensics John Meany, director of debate outreach Kate Shuster, and the 100-plus-members of The Claremont Colleges Debate Union busy, they also make time for a host of other debate-related efforts.

The student debaters, for instance, demonstrate their skills at campus and community events, offering programming on public argumentation, public speaking, presentations with visual aids, mock legislative assemblies, Town Hall meetings, and round-table discussions. They also are a regular feature of family weekends at CMC and neighboring campuses, produce and deliver public speaking guides to faculty and students of the Colleges, and offer classroom programs on effective presentation skills, including evaluation forms to help faculty effectively assess students' in-class public speaking exercises. The Union's academic presentation program guides students through the process of researching, writing, and presenting academic papers at national and international conferences.

Selected Claremont Colleges debaters intern with such organizations as the International Debate Education Association, funded by the Soros Open Society Institute; the Managing the Atom Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government; and DNA Studio in Los Angeles--providing two internships for DNA projects and social or community resource activism, using the company's resources.

And, with the help of Claremont Colleges alumni who are now attorneys, the Debate Union runs a legal clinic program, in which students identify a case scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court, work with the alumni to research and write an amicus brief on an otherwise un-addressed issue in the case, and then are guided by the alumni volunteers as they present the brief to the Supreme Court.

Although labor-intensive, the time invested in such projects ultimately is founded on the hope that generations of students will "acquire and develop sophisticated professional oral and written communication skills," Meany says.

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