Amherst Debate Society Makes College Proud in Panama
On Dec. 27, 2024, six members of the Amherst Debate Society (ADS) traveled to Panama City, Panama to compete in the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC). Over the course of a week, ADS members balanced long hours of debate with sightseeing and forging connections with students from around the world — all while breaking Amherst records.
WUDC is the world's largest annual international debating tournament, hosting 232 teams from around the globe. ADS has been attending WUDC ever since it was first held in Glasgow, Scotland in 1981, with former Amherst President Julian Gibbs providing special funding for the trip.
ADS brought three teams of two to Panama City. After nine preliminary rounds over three days, Raffay Tabassum ’26E and Kamil Mahmood ’27 advanced to elimination rounds and ended as octofinalists — marking the farthest an Amherst team has ever gone in WUDC. They celebrated alongside their teammates and fellow competitors Raina Batra ’27, Cecilia Granda-Scott ’26, Robiah Arefin ’28, and Talia Ehrenberg ’28.
Preparing for WUDC
ADS’ success at WUDC was the result of months of hard work and practice. While ADS members typically debate in the American Parliamentary Debate Association format (APDA) in U.S. competitions, the WUDC uses the British Parliamentary format (BP).
“Unlike [APDA], with BP, both teams have no knowledge of the case ahead of time, and you just have 15 minutes to figure out what you're gonna say during each round,” explained Granda-Scott, co-president of ADS.
This year, the topics debated over the nine WUDC preliminary rounds included progressive versus classical education, the rise of specialized private equity firms, reconciliatory versus confrontational approaches in Western feminist advocacy, and U.S. involvement in Panama.
While it may seem daunting to go into a debate blind, ADS members spent a lot of time prior to WUDC researching global current events. Further, Granda-Scott said “all of our classes at Amherst … help a lot.”
ADS members’ life experiences, in connection with their strong friendships, also proved an immense asset.
One preliminary round concerned the creation of a new government in Bangladesh. Batra, the other co-president of ADS, said, “That was really fun for us, because [Arefin] is from Bangladesh and lived through the protests. And so while we were debating this, all of the knowledge in my head that he had told me about Bangladesh came out.”
“During the motion on Panama, both me and [Mahmood] didn’t know a lot about it, but we were still able to get by because, coincidentally, just the night before we were talking to [Granda-Scott] who studied abroad in Colombia,” explained Tabassum. “She happened to know quite a bit about how Panama got its independence from Colombia, and so it really helped us the next day when the motion showed up. Even small conversations you’re having with your teammates while you’re in the debate environment goes a long way.”
While ADS members utilized knowledge from unexpected sources during the competition, Tabassum and Mahmood finishing as octofinalists was also unexpected for both students.
“Going into the competition, [Mahmood and I] both had busy semesters and didn’t prepare as much as we would have liked to. And we were both like, ‘Okay, this is probably gonna be a long shot, so let’s just try to give it our best in the last week or so and then just have fun with the activity,’” explained Tabassum. “But on the first day of Worlds, we got first, first, and then second … In that round … that’s when the belief came in — we can actually do this.”
Forging Connections
Beyond debating pertinent global issues, ADS members found that interacting with teams from around the world proved to be the most exciting aspect of WUDC.
“Even though we’re all doing the same format, different regions definitely have different styles and value certain things more,” explained Granda-Scott. “Especially when you’re looking at your judge, you have to slightly change the way that you might emphasize or focus on certain things more depending on whether the judge is American, Asian, Eastern or Western European, etc.”
“Outside of the debate tournament itself, there were plenty of socials to meet people. And there are, despite differences, a lot of commonalities between debaters,” said Tabassum. “I thought coming from the Pakistani debate circuit, which was toxic in high school, that was a unique experience. But when I talked to debaters from Canada, etc., they had similar experiences.”
While the ADS members met students from across the globe, they also prioritized time with one another. As Arefin, the ADS secretary and vice president of operations, explained, “We had team dinners every single night … After each day, we’d talk about our wins, talk about our losses.”
On New Year’s Day, ADS members took advantage of a day off from debate to explore Panama City and go to a nature reserve.
“[ADS] encourages people to really bring out their best and be competitive as well, without being toxic and overwhelming,” said Granda-Scott. “I think we all have a lot of fun.”
ADS Looking Forward
“My goal is to make sure ADS is like a sport that more people can try out and find value in,” explained Arefin. “If someone wants to do it for fun, they can do it. But if someone really likes the grind and the competition, they also have the resources to be able to really maximize their potential.”
Batra said that debate has strengthened other skills. “The time it takes me to research for my classes has just gotten so much shorter because I’m used to being able to do it really quickly … I realized that I am actually better at writing now because of debate.”
This semester, ADS intends to send teams to various other competitions, including the North American Championships of BP, the U.S. Universities Debating Championships, the APDA National Championship, and the Cornell Novice Nationals.
“We always have tons of opportunities to improve, or even travel internationally, even if it’s not going to Worlds,” said Batra. “For example, we’ll hopefully also be going to a tournament at McGill [University in Montreal, Canada] in the spring, which is really exciting, so everyone in ADS can get a little bit of that international experience. I think the debate team is really growing in a really great way, and we love all of our debaters.”