Public-speaking team gets jump start

Forensics at the College has an added dimension: Besides the debate team, Rochester now boasts a public-speaking team. And the new group is aiming to repeat its pre-season success at the team's first major official tournament this month.

Last month, the newly formed team won an award and just missed scoring another win during an unofficial competition at SUNY Binghamton. The members will return to the Southern Tier January 30 and travel to Cornell University the following weekend to participate in their first official tournaments.

Founded and coached by senior lecturer in English Curt Smith, the group currently has seven members. Smith--an author, award-winning radio commentator, and former speech writer for President George Bush--competed in public speaking in high school and college, and teaches the University's public-speaking class. "It's extraordinarily important for all of us, including students, to be able to verbally express ourselves," he said.

Public-speaking competitions have two major categories: limited and unlimited preparation. Limited preparation involves two events: impromptu, in which students are given three quotations and have seven minutes to prepare and deliver a commentary; and extemporaneous, in which students are given a topic and have a half hour to prepare a seven-minute speech to deliver before the judges.

In unlimited preparation, also known as persuasive and informative speech, students prepare and memorize in advance a 10-minute speech on a topic of their own choosing. Most of the members of the team compete in two events.

In Binghamton last month, David Nowak, a senior from Auburn, Wash., won the Limited Preparation Award. Four other Rochester students narrowly trailed Binghamton's winner of the Unlimited Preparation Award.

Quick thinking in competition is improved by a knowledge of current affairs, both Smith and the students say, and by having an understanding of issues like foreign policy and the economy.

"Public speaking is the art of having grace under pressure. It's art, not science; poetry, not prose," said Smith.