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UW Debaters To Discuss Pros And Cons Of Inviting Dennis Prager To Speak

Gage Skidmore
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In early November, protests broke out at the University of Wyoming over an invitation to conservative radio host Dennis Prager to speak on campus. On Wednesday, December 6, the UW debate team will face members of the conservative student group, Turning Point USA, that invited Prager to discuss the decision.

UW Debate coach Travis Cram said the teams will debate whether the content of a speaker’s views should be considered in deciding whether to invite people to talk in the future. This is not the first time a controversy about free speech has happened on UW’s campus. Protests also broke out when Bill Ayers and Abby Hoffman were invited.

Cram said judges will decide a winning team but added that there’s more to the event than that.  

“I have asked the panelists to keep an open mind because it’s not a matter of who they ultimately agree with because debate is not advocacy, or it’s not a test to see who studied the best and who has the best answer, but who is doing the better job of making the case,” said Cram

Cram said the idea of the event is to use debate techniques to model civil discourse.

“People do not hold opinions different than us because they hate us or because they are sort of geared towards eliminating a person’s way of life,” he said. “People hold different opinions because humans are faulty. We don’t really have access to a pure version of truth.”

The debate is free and open to the public and audience questions will be allowed. It starts at 6:30 p.m. in the UW student union west ballroom.pol

Melodie Edwards is the host and producer of WPM's award-winning podcast The Modern West. Her Ghost Town(ing) series looks at rural despair and resilience through the lens of her hometown of Walden, Colorado. She has been a radio reporter at WPM since 2013, covering topics from wildlife to Native American issues to agriculture.
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