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From Dateline ( January 30, 2003)
There's Lots of Debate
for These Professors
by Susan Katsaros
K. Jeanine Congalton and Jon C. Bruschke are both
associate professors of speech communication and co-directors of
the university's forensic team.
When two speech communication faculty members come
together for an interview it promises to be a lively banter of information.
Bruschke earned a doctorate of speech communication
from the University of Utah and his bachelor's and master's degrees
in speech communication from Cal State Fullerton. Prior to coming
to campus in 1997, he taught at Baylor University.
Congalton earned her bachelor of science degree in
speech communication from Illinois State University; her master's
from North Dakota State University; and her doctorate from the University
of Utah. Prior to coming to Cal State Fullerton in 1989, Congalton
taught at Fresno State.
Interestingly, Bruschke and Congalton coached forensics
for a year while Bruschke finished his master's at Cal State Fullerton
and Congalton remembers judging a high school competition in which
Bruschke took part.
Both are devoted baseball fans: she for the Chicago Cubs, he for
the New York Mets.
| Q: |
How do students get involved
in debate and individual events? |
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| A: |
Bruschke.
In various ways. Some students accidentally come to our class
instead of math; they stay and end up liking it. One of our
award- winning debaters joined because there was someone he
liked in the class. The friend dropped it and the debater
stayed. Others have joined due to a computer glitch and stayed
on. |
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| Q:
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What are this year's debate
topics? |
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| A:
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Bruschke.
This year the focus is mental health and international
treaties. |
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| Q: |
What is an individual event
competition? |
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| A: |
Congalton.
Individual event competition is broken into three categories:
prose/interpretative, impromptu and persuasive/ informative. |
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| Q: |
Could you give me some examples
of various individual event topics? |
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| A: |
Congalton. In the
persuasive category one of our students spoke on the importance
of lowering the headrest in one's automobile in an effort to
lower the rate of neck injuries. Other impromptu subjects include
• “Any woman who understands the problems of running
a home will be nearer to understanding the problems of running
a country.”–Margaret Thatcher
• “You can't build a reputation on what you intend
to do.” –Liz Smith
• “The direct use of force is such a poor solution
to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children
and large nations.” –David Friedman
• “The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of
something we do not understand.” –Frank Herbert. |
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| Q: |
When did forensics begin
at Cal State Fullerton? |
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| A: |
Bruschke. In the
late 60s, early 70s. |
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| Q: |
You recently held a high
school debate tournament on campus. |
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| A: |
Bruschke.
Yes we did. In fact, the great niece and great nephew of fellow
professor of speech communication, Norman Page, competed in
the January high school invitational attended by more than
1,000 high schoolers. One took third-place in novice impromptu
speaking and the other won in extemporaneous speaking.
Additionally, the son of Richard Wiseman, professor of speech
communication, also competed in the invitational; and from
sister campus Cal State North-ridge, Don Brownlee, chair of
communication's studies, attended as his daughter was competing
in the interpretation category.
Recent V&V honoree Terry Giles was an award-winning debater,
who now contributes fiscal support to the program. |
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| Q: |
Why should students join
the forensics team? |
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| A:
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Congalton.
A participant of the forensics team learns analytical and
critical thinking, research and public speaking skills. |
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| Q: |
How many members are on
the CSUF team? And what is the operating budget of the forensics
team? |
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| A: |
Bruschke
and Congalton. We have 13
members each on the debate team and individual events team.
Our operating budget is roughly $50,000. This pales in comparison
to institutions like Idaho State University, which has more
than a $100,000 budget, or like USC, where three of their
10 full-ride scholarships equal our entire operating budget. |
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| Q: |
How many hours a week would
you say our students devote to research, practice and travel?
How many hours would you say you devote to forensics? |
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| A: |
Bruschke. About
20-30 hours a month for students and 40-60 hours a month for
the directors. |
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| Q: |
How often are you on the
road with our students? |
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| A: |
Bruschke. Eight
to 10 times a month we are traveling with the team. There are
times when I get into the car and I don't know which airport
I'm going to. |
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| Q: |
Why do you keep up this
grueling schedule? |
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| A: |
Congalton
and Bruschke
[practically in unison]. “It's extremely rewarding.
Being directors of the forensic teams gives us the opportunity
to really get to know the students. If we just taught speech
communication we would only see the students, at most, three
times a week. |
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| Q: |
What have our forensic
alumni done since graduation? |
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| A:
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Congalton
and Bruschke. Forensic
team alumni are presently working as attorneys, social workers,
professors and debate coaches, as well as a fiction author. |
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| Q: |
If any of the Dateline
readers are interested in listening to our students in action,
are there any upcoming opportunities? |
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| A: |
Bruschke
and Congalton.
There are a few upcoming Southern California tournaments scheduled.
Additionally, the students will be competing in Chicago, and
at Arizona State University; University of Mississippi, Atlanta;
Chico State; Cal Poly San Luis Obispo; and San Diego. |
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| Q: |
Explain the Southern California
Urban Debate League that you also oversee? |
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| A: |
Bruschke.
This is a public-speaking program for high school students
in Southern California. We will host the second annual West
Coast Urban Debate League Champion- ship April 11-13 on campus.
Leagues participating include Seattle Debate Foundation, Bay
Area Urban Debate League, laremont Colleges Debate Outreach
and the Southern California Urban Debate league.
SCUDL won awards at the novice, junior varsity and varsity
levels this past fall semester. Fourteen high schools are
involved in SCUDL. These high schools participate in 14 tournaments
a year. For more info- mation on SCUDL leaders can go to the
Speech Communication website and then click on SCUDL. |
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| Q: |
Have our student competitors
qualified for nationals? |
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| A: |
Congalton and Bruschke.
To date one of the individual event competitors has qualified
for national competition. Much like the Master's in golf, competitors
are judged tournament by tournament in an effort to qualify
for nationals. We
anticipate with the upcoming tournaments this year that more
of our individual event competitors will qualify this year. |
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| Q: |
What are the debate team's
present standings, which much like basketball, change practically
weekly? |
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| A: |
Bruschke. Presently
we are ranked in the top 20. |
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| Q: |
Any last thoughts? |
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| A: |
Congalton.
The Mets stink.
Bruschke. Well,
at least they won the World Series in this century. Speech
and debate is the best thing you've never heard of. |
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