University of Wales, Aberystwyth Debating Union

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The University of Wales, Aberystwyth Debating Union is a society within the University of Wales, Aberystwyth (UWA) devoted to the exchange of views on any subject through the medium of debate, specifically the British Parliamentary System. Its current President (typically known as Auditor) is Michael Keary, though this is soon to be changed as Mr. Keary will be leaving the University at the end of this academic year.

1 Foundation
2 First and Subsequent Outward Excursions
3 Current Events
4 Further Links

[edit] Foundation

The origins of the society date back to early October, 2006 when the recently arrived Michael Keary, a former debater with the University of Limerick Debating Union, found that no such facility now existed within his new academic surroundings, the previous society having gone out of being some time beforehand. Keary only discovered this for certain at the Students' Union societies' fair, shortly after he arrived in September.

He was quick to act, organising the first meeting for Thursday, October the twelfth wherein he changed the subsequent meeting dates to Tuesdays and conducted a short debate on the legalisation of marijuana. A constitution was passed the very next week with the society taking upon itself the motto qui tacet, consentire videtur, which translates roughly as 'he who remains silent is seen to agree'. At this same meeting, four society officers were elected, Keary as Auditor, Nico Strauss as Treasurer and two others who do not bear mentioning. A Socials Officer was elected later, but also merits name neglect.

Keary took it upon himself from then on to decide the motions which would be debated each week. For the titles of all motions debated, hypnosis will be required, but the more memorable ones are 'that this house believes climate change will not be stopped' and 'that this house would disband the United Kingdom'.

[edit] First and Subsequent Outward Excursions

The society's first competitive outing was to the Lancaster badlands, namely the decrepit Lancaster University. This inter-varsity (IV) was in keeping with its surroundings, boasting such memorable events as people walking in and out of debates to chat with the judges, the infamous, 'I didn't count your extension because I ran out of room on my notepaper' - Lancaster judge in the second round (in mitigation, it is believed that this chair judge was a first year with one IV's experience), and the hilarious flood of tears from the Lancaster organising committee which took place following the final debate. This reduced everyone in the auditorium to fits of laughter and snorts of derision and will be used to insult Lancastrians for evermore. In explanation, IVs are held just about every weekend by one university or another and are not considered an onerous enough task to merit waterworks, especially an IV of Lancaster's quality, or lack thereof.

The society has since competed at the Cardiff IV, the Welch mace and the LSE open. Its greatest successes to date have been a sixty-seventh place ranking in the World Debating societies' league table, two teams in the semi-finals of the Welch mace and Mr. Iain Wilson's fourth place finish on the speakers' tab at same. They were also named Aberystwyth Students' Union society of month (or something like that) for the month of January. They very much hope to fill this section with genuine accomplishments at some time in the future.

[edit] Current Events

Having added the delectable Adam Gower as Convenor of Debates and general Deputy Auditor (unofficial), Iain Wilson as Facebook Engineer and David Jones as Official Buffoon and Web(dungeon)master, while also upgrading Nico Strauss to Treasurer/Vice-Auditor/Secretary/PRO, the society faces a promising future. It has also begun receiving financial aid from the UWA Law Department on the back of an aggressive marketing campaign by one Birju Dattani and hopes next year to receive a decent budget with which to advance its debating agenda. The society meets every academic year on Tuesdays in A14 at seven o'clock.