Faculty debate medieval survival at FYE event

Micah Offermann

Students packed the Washburn Room Wednesday night, April 4 to eat pizza and see their favorite professors joust with rhetoric about how they would be the best fit to lead Washburn in a medieval reality.

The mood was exciting as the soundtrack from the HBO show Game of Thrones boomed across the room. The event was the second annual First Year Experience faculty debate, which last year was located in the Bradbury Thompson Center and centered on which department representative would be best to lead in the case of a zombie apocalypse.

Participating faculty included David Sollars, dean of the school of business, Erin Grant, assistant professor of criminal justice and legal studies, Linsey Moddelmog, assistant professor of political science, Drew Vartia, lecturer of chemistry, Amy White, simulation coordinator and lecturer of nursing, and Tony Silvestri, lecturer of history. The debaters were classified into “houses” based on the school into which their department fell (House of Arts & Sciences, House of Applied Studies, House of Nursing and House of Business).

“It really brings the Washburn community together in a way that is exemplary of the kinds of events we can have at Washburn,” said associate dean of university libraries Sean Bird, who acted as moderator for the debate.

The event opened with the introduction of the participants and thanking those who helped put it on. Then, with a quick explanation of the rules and procedures, the debate was on.

The champion was to be chosen by the audience in a series of three rounds, each with a new set of rules and questions. Round one was essentially a round in which opening statements of no longer than five minutes by each candidate were to be heard, after which the students voted based on personality, relation to discipline and medieval content. Only four would stand after the vote.

The round opened with Grant, who made the point that law enforcement was of principal importance during those dark times, and that society could not allow the people to live as savages. She ensured she would enact laws that would be applied equally to all, host fair trials with a due process and dabble with plans to seize all of Kansas.

Next was Moddelmog, who announced that political science is the single most important discipline because of the nature of the study. She claimed that the political science department was dedicated to diversity and creating a strong vision for Washburn.

“Winter is coming,” she said, “and diversity will make us stronger.”

Shortly thereafter, Vartia approached the podium to explain why chemistry was to be the chief discipline in the medieval era. He expressed that chemistry could be used to make massive explosions and effective weapons. Even truth serum and pheromones were not out of the question.

After a good laugh from the audience, he described two more of the practical uses for chemistry in the fictional realm: medicine and building materials.

Sollars was the next in line and pointed out that business expertise could prove useful to solve all economic and financial problems a kingdom might encounter. He added that under the House of Business there were several “immigrant knights” who would aid in foreign relations with other nations. He closed with the statement, “You can either join us, or work for us someday.”

White of the House of Nursing orated her argument that nurses were the best of all worlds. She reinforced her claim by stating that nurses are artists, scientists, negotiators, culturally competent, healers, fighters, excellent problem solvers, have knowledge of herbs and know how to “help people die.”

Lastly was Silvestri. The medieval history professor identified himself and proceeded to list the duties of a king. He concluded that a leader from the history department fulfills all of these requirements and even suggested that his five opponents would be welcomed to sit on a small council and advise him as their ruler.

Round one ended and the audience had spoken, but before the audience was allowed to know who had advanced, the rules of round two were explained.

In the second round, the questions were in sets of five with a multiple choice answer style, and the competitors were divided into two groups of two, which would battle head-to-head. The candidates were to answer the question by choosing a letter answer, then provide a short reason as to why they chose that answer. The opportunity to answer the question first would alternate between the two after every question and at the end the audience would pick one professor from each pair to advance to the final round.

The first pair to compete was White versus Silvestri. The first to draw blood in this round was White. Upon receiving the first question – how would you protect your castle – she answered with letter E: retreat to the walls and unleash the monster.

Silvestri countered with answer D: depend on the archers and their arrows to get the job done while hiding behind to fortitude of the walls.

The next question asked about the candidate’s weapon of choice. Silvestri responded with letter A, a sword, because it was classy and civilized. White hastily chose answer C, poison, because it was fast and humane.

On the next question – which house would you ally yourself with, besides your own – White answered with letter B, the House of Arts and Sciences, because she had to stick with her friends in science.

Silvestri, on the other hand, being a member of the House of Arts and Sciences, replied with letter A, the house of business, because a good kingdom centers around a stable economy and business knowledge doesn’t hurt.

When asked the best way to end a battle, Silvestri cited history when he replied with letter B, kidnapping the king, stating that Alexander the Great used this methodology to win some of his conquests. White chimed in that her answer was letter A: retreat and devise a game plan.

Finally when asked who the potential ruler’s confidant was, White responded with E, her spouse. Silvestri said D, his best friend.

The next pair was announced to be Dr. Vartia vs. Dr. Moddelmog. The announcement meant that Sollars and Grant were eliminated from the competition. The room thanked Sollars and Grant for their efforts.

Vartia and Moddelmog seemingly had very similar ideas about how to rule the kingdom. They were both from the House of Arts and Sciences and both answered B, talking to people, in response to the first question: how do you get people to trust you?

Question two was how would you treat your prisoners, and although both gave slightly different reasoning, they both answered D: keep them in stockades.

After question three, how would you handle trade, they both answered that they would create treaties and spread diplomacy. But it was question four that finally divided them.

The question, what is the ideal role of marriage in your kingdom, was answered by Dr. Moddelmog with letter D: to produce babies which are a symbolic sacrifice to the gods.

Dr. Vartia answered with letter A, to create alliances, because he didn’t think it was a good idea to kill the young, weak, and completely helpless. It was at this point that Moddelmog exclaimed that she did not condone baby killing and that her answer simply stated a “symbolic sacrifice” rather than a physical one.

Finally on question five, what do you do in the case of rumors of a dragon in a distant land, Vartia responded that he would make allies with the dragon people while Moddelmog insisted on sending for information to verify the existence of a dragon first.

The second round of voting was tallied, resulting in White and Moddelmog advancing, and the rules of round three were announced. The finalists were instructed to pick a “King’s Hand” from the panel of professors who had not progressed to the final round and asked to state the biggest weakness of their own department along with how the selected “King’s Hand” would compensate for it.

The pairs were allowed five minutes to develop a plan while the Game of Thrones season five trailer aired on the projector in the far southwest corner of the room.

After much deliberation, the first finalist, White and her Hand, Vartia, declared that the biggest weakness of the nursing department is its compassionate nature and how killing could be potentially difficult for those types of people. The chemistry department remedied that by making more humane ways of killing like lethal injections and also produced more efficient weapons so that the killing would be over more quickly.

The second finalist, Moddelmog along with her Hand, Silvestri, stated that the weaknesses of the political science department are two-fold. First, the political science department is very focused on current events while the history department obviously focuses on the historical events and the big picture. The second flaw in the political science department is the tendency to be “hot-headed” in conflict, and the historians would do a good job of balancing it out by being the rational unbiased researchers in the case of conflict. After all was said and done, White of the House of Nursing was crowned king and rightful heir to the Washburn Throne.

This event was hosted by the First Year Experience Program and the Campus Activities Board. Reportedly, some professors gave extra credit for their students to go and observe the friendly debate. It seemed that everyone had fun and received a free t-shirt in addition to the free pizza.

The Campus Activities Board mentioned that in order to stay posted on events like these, one simply has to “like” them on Facebook, follow them on twitter or there is an updated event calendar posted on their page within the washburn.edu website.

The FYE program has not confirmed whether this annual event will continue, but considering the success of the event, there will most likely be a similar event in the works to take place about this time next year.