The Rutgers contingent at Brandeis gathers after the narrow 3-2 loss in quarterfinals at the huge Brandeis tournament. Left to right: Adam Bomeisl, Henry Phipps, Storey Clayton, Alex Jubb, Ashley Novak, Jason Boyle, Chris Bergman, Phil Davidar, Rachel Moon, Nick Hansen, George Alukal, Kai Rau, Russell Potter, Nisha Kumar, Sean Leonard, Quinn Maingi, and Stine-Oksana Soomai.
The Rutgers University Debate Union (RUDU) ran its break streak to thirteen weekends and padded the lead for 3rd place in the College of the Year (COTY) standings with an octofinal win and quarterfinal appearance for Ashley Novak & Chris Bergman at Brandeis last weekend.
Here are the official accomplishments from Brandeis:
Chris Bergman & Ashley Novak – 7th Team
Ashley Novak – 9th Speaker
Bergman & Novak lost the narrowest quarterfinal decision to a team from Yale. Yale remains cemented in 1st place in the COTY standings with host Brandeis 2nd. However, Rutgers gained 7 more points over Johns Hopkins and Harvard this weekend, extending the lead for 3rd place with one regular-season weekend remaining. Rutgers’ lead over the two schools and the University of Chicago, which has been rising through the ranks in the last month, is all but insurmountable in the last weekend before the National Championships at the University of Maryland.
Rutgers will be sending five full teams to Nationals with its seven qualifications this year, both team records. The final squad will be announced this week, but will certainly consist of qualified debaters Novak, Bergman, Russell Potter, Adam Bomeisl, Quinn Maingi, Alex Jubb, and Sean Leonard.
On Monday afternoon, Nisha Kumar and Sean Leonard debated Alex Jubb and Bhargavi Sriram on the topic of whether it was ethical to ration certain healthcare procedures for some to ensure more complete healthcare access for all. Kumar & Leonard took the Government position that it was ethical, while Jubb & Sriram opposed. The debate was held in the West Lecture Hall of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Attended by over fifty UMDNJ students, the debate was lively and spirited and introduced by RUDU alumnus Kevin Parks ’11, a current UMDNJ medical student.
UMDNJ will be merging with Rutgers over the summer to become the Rutgers Medical School. The debate was the first in what will hopefully become a larger series of debates on healthcare policy and biomedical ethics in partnership between Rutgers Med and the Debate Union.
