The Wesleyan Debate Society is the oldest club at Wesleyan University, bar none. When I first showed up to a debate meeting in September last year, I was struck by the fact that no one knew when the club was founded. Until very recently, the club was called the T. Woodrow Wilson Debate Society, after the former Wesleyan Professor of Economics and Politics and President of the United States from 1913 to 1921. Between 1888 and 1890, Wilson was also coach of the debate team and the football team. However, when I first joined debate, we thought the club had been founded sometime in the 1900s; this would still make us one of the oldest clubs on campus, rivaling the Old Methodist Rugby Football Club, the a cappella group the Spirits, the secret societies, and the fraternities.

Months later, upon the advice of the Debate Society’s President Tim Goggin ’24 and Vice President Sophie Fetter ’25, I finally took it upon myself to go to Special Collections and Archives at Olin Library to figure out just how old the club is. What I discovered shattered everything I thought I knew about the Wesleyan Debate Society.

First of all, the oldest iteration of the debate team was not founded in the 1900s. It was founded in 1831, the same year that Wesleyan was founded. When a class of 40 Methodist students and a small cohort of faculty founded Wesleyan, they founded two clubs alongside it: the Philorhetorian Literary Society and the Peithologian Literary Society. The Peithologian Literary Society is where our story begins. 

One could rightly ask: How is the Peithologian Society our direct predecessor? We know this only because of records of an event known as the Wesleyan Prize Declamation and Debate, held by the Peithologians on a Thursday evening on June 13, 1861. The event was then held every year afterward at least until the 1920s, well into the time when we were called the T. Woodrow Wilson Debate Society.

Every year, the tuxedo-clad Philorhetorians, and later the Debate Team, would gather in the Memorial Chapel to listen to the majesty of the Wesleyan organ and enjoy one round of debate and a showcase of orated speeches (at the time called declamations) judged by a panel of professors from schools like Harvard University, Yale University, and Dartmouth College. Debate topics ranged from immigration to the Sherman Antitrust Act. One notable judge was Stephen Olin, who would later become the Wesleyan president. 

The Prize Declamation and Debate continued to be held throughout the formation of the club’s first varsity debate team and several “Triangular Leagues” in the late 1880s, the birth of Wesleyan’s long history in intercollegiate debate. The most interesting of these is the Wesleyan-Williams-Amherst Triangular League, a rivalry that persists to this day.

The name “T. Woodrow Wilson Debate Society” first appeared in 1903, when the club rebranded after the fall of the Peithologians and Philorhetorians to Wesleyan’s then-burgeoning Greek life. We know now that Woodrow Wilson wasn’t just our coach; he actually built the Debate Society as we know it, taking over the Philorhetorians’ responsibilities and events. Let that sink in: the first intercollegiate coach of the Wesleyan Debate Society was former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson.

By the 1940s, Wesleyan had gained fame and notoriety for its prowess in debate and oration. We attracted debaters from the Oxford Union Debating Society in what we think was our first-ever debate outside of North America. From 1942 to 1945, Varsity Debate stopped competing against other schools because of World War II. 

Fast forward once again to the radically changed Wesleyan of the 1970s. Women were admitted to Wesleyan for the first time in half a century. In the 1970 season, the first debate pair consisting of women was admitted to the team. On Nov. 6 and 7, team legends Nancy Fuchs ’73 and Karla Bell ’72 placed fifth at the Buffalo Parliamentary Debate Tournament. To boot, they handed Colgate University, the winners, their only loss of the tournament. Betty Weiner debated one year earlier with Tim Atwood, where she claimed the spot as Wesleyan’s first female debater.

Think about that: 138 years in and we had never had a female debater, even before women were banned from admission to Wesleyan in 1909. Betty Weiner, Nancy Fuchs, and Karla Bell are feminist trailblazers at Wesleyan, shattering the glass ceiling that prevented women from joining the male-dominated debate team and arguing far better than some of the best male debaters competing in Buffalo.

By the mid-1970s, the Wesleyan Debate Society was at the center of campus life. Every Thursday, students would gather at Downey House to down a pint or two of beer and laugh at the ridiculous drunk debates that would ensue. Curiously, Wesleyan also held annual debates against opponents from the Soviet Union. Representing Wesleyan in 1976 were David Kleinfeld and Andrew Brotman, up against Sergey Mikhailovich Plekhanov and Madina Binesheuna Djarbusynovafrom the Moscow Institute of International Relations. We don’t know whether Wesleyan won, but Plekhanov did remark that if he made any mistakes, it was because of jet lag.

For the next few decades, Wesleyan dominated in the world of debate. We first joined the American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA), the league we still compete in today, in the early 1970s. In the intervening years, The Argus printed headlines like “3 Wesleyan Debaters Defeat Mt. Holyoke In Televised Debate” (Dec. 12, 1969), “Debaters Sweep McGill Tourney For 4 Trophies” (Feb. 24, 1972), “Debate Twosome Finishes First in Nation” by Christopher Kenedi ’93 (April 27, 1990), “Team of Quipsters Garners Many Honors” by Christopher Kenedi ’93 (Jan. 5, 1992), and “Debate Team Places Nationally” by Joanna Tice ’07 (April 23, 2004). In the 2000s, we debated everywhere from Scotland to South Africa to Romania to Thailand.

The Debate Society stagnated in 1996 after graduation that year and was eventually reconstituted in 2001 as the Wesleyan Parliamentary Debate Society. It was renamed back to the T. Woodrow Wilson Debate Society around 2004 before finally being renamed to the Wesleyan Debate Society by the society’s current Vice President Sophie Fetter ’25.

So, what now? There are many options to consider. Now that we have access to our history, the Wesleyan Debate Society can revive old awards and traditions. We can hold the Prize Declamation and Debate at the Memorial Chapel for the first time in a century. We can bring back the late 20th century Pub Debates at Downey House (without the beer, of course). We can welcome our heroes, Nancy Fuchs and Karla Bell, back to campus. We can even consider reverting to our truly epic Philorhetorian name. But one thing’s for certain: Our humble Debate Society will forever carry with it a tale as old as Wesleyan.

Nicolás Millán Prieto can be reached at nmillan01@wesleyan.edu.

“From the Argives” is a column that explores The Argus’ archives (Argives) and any interesting, topical, poignant, or comical stories that have been published in the past. Given The Argus’ long history on campus and the ever-shifting viewpoints of its student body, the material, subject matter, and perspectives expressed in the archived article may be insensitive or outdated, and do not reflect the views of any current member of The Argus. If you have any questions about the original article or its publication, please contact Head Archivists Sida Chu at schu@wesleyan.edu and Maggie Smith at mssmith@wesleyan.edu.