The Communication & Journalism Department used to have a speech and debate program ranked 23rd in the nation.
Last weekend, the speech and debate society struggled to send three members of its club to a debate tournament in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Daniel Conway was the only member of the team to place in the competition. He placed first in the poetry event and second in the program of interpretation, an event that combines drama, prose and poetry.
Tyler McCormick, the society's competition, said the budget of $10,000 only pays for two to three tournaments per year.
"As much as we'd like to, we can't be competitive," he said.
He said the annual budget for the typical college speech and debate team runs about $60,000.
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He said now that the team is competing again, members are hoping their achievements will bring enough attention to get more money for the group.
In 1999, the speech and debate program was dropped from the Communication & Journalism Department, because it lacked faculty members.
Judith Hendry, a lecturer in Communication & Journalism, was the coach of the speech and debate team before the program was dropped.
Thom Jewel, who coached the team before Hendry, developed an impressive debate team, she said.
She said when she took over, none of the previous members of the team stayed on. She had to start the team from scratch.
"We were all beginners," she said. "We didn't win a lot of trophies, but we had a great time."
She said the team struggled for a couple of years.
The department decided to drop the program because it was short on faculty, Hendry said.
"They needed me in the classroom," she said.
Mario Hererra, a member of the speech and debate society, said the program got funds from the department, but not enough to pay for a faculty position.
"It's like saying, 'You have all this football equipment - by the way, you have no coaching staff,'" he said.
Hendry said funding issues didn't kill the program.
Her contract released her from teaching more classes so she could coach the team, but because they needed her to teach more, she wasn't able to coach the team.
"It broke all our hearts," she said. "It was a small novice group that was building up to a wonderful program."
The speech and debate society grew out of efforts from Hendry to keep forensics students involved by offering internships in the Communication & Journalism Department coaching high school speech and debate teams.
None of the members of the speech and debate society participated in the speech and debate program through the Communication & Journalism Department.
McCormick said he'd like to see the team become more competitive and is hoping its achievements will bring more funding and students to the University.
He said because the University doesn't have a program, many top high school students opt to go to other universities with well-funded and developed speech and debate teams.
Hendry said she thinks the Communication & Journalism Department needs to have a speech and debate program but doesn't see it happening in the near future.
