The Las Vegas Strip can be seen in the distance from various points on the UNLV campus. Image Credit: Wikipedia
In 2007, a $1.5 million donation from Sanford and Sandra Berman helped bring the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) debate programme back to life after nearly a decade without a team. By March 2018, just 11 years after the programme’s revival, UNLV had climbed to 5th place in the national varsity rankings, establishing itself among the leading college debate teams in the US. In January 2012, the university announced that its Sanford I. Berman Debate Team had entered the top 10 varsity programmes nationally for the first time.
UNLV students Sara Beth Brooks and Matt Gomez won the Las Vegas Classic Invitational Collegiate Debate Tournament, defeating a team from the University of Texas in the final.
The team was tied for 10th place with Kansas State University in the National Debate Tournament rankings, according to the university. What followed was a remarkable rise in competitive university debating, driven by dedicated students, coaching and a growing record of tournament victories. UNLV’s progress became evident within its first few years of returning to competition. It also held the highest ranking in District I, which included universities in California, Arizona and Nevada. The university provided another example of that progress.
Budget cuts led to the programme being dismantled in 1998, leaving UNLV without a competitive team for almost a decade. The turning point came in 2007 when Dr Sanford and Sandra Berman contributed $1.5 million to revive the programme, according to the university. The university’s debate team had a successful history before financial difficulties brought its activities to an end. Their support helped the university rebuild its team and recruit Jacob Thompson, a communication studies professor who became its coach and director. Students needed to develop their research, speaking and debating abilities while building the discipline required to compete against experienced university teams. Thompson’s ambition was to create a team capable of winning a national championship while maintaining a strong commitment to teamwork and representing the university responsibly. That approach became an important part of the programme’s development.