Touro Communication Club #20
BREAKING NEWS - Green Gets Award!
Richard Green, one of the Speech and Communication faculty members who works with the Communication Club and the Debate Team, just won a New York Times ESOL Teacher of the Year Award. He will be honored on Monday evening, March 31, at the NY Times Center on 8th Avenue between 40th and 41st. An advertisement will appear sometime in this week’s New York Times announcing the award. Richard was recognized especially for his work in developing technology (videos, podcasts) to support his ESL classes in Oral English. Congratulations, Richard. The award is well deserved.
Our four-week schedule:
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 2008 – THE DEBATE TEAM WILL MEET AT 1:00 PM IN ROOM 610 @ 50 WEST 23RD STREET
The Debate team has two copies of “Opposing Views: Gun Control” in addition to the extensive research they’ve already collected. We will now be able to push ahead in developing both the Affirmative and Negative arguments with the appropriate supporting evidence. We may be able to experiment with cross-examination technique in this session. This is the hard and boring drudgery necessary to get the cases up to speed.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 2008 – 5th Speech Contest – 2 pm – Room 314 – Midtown - 27 West 23rd St.
Student Finalists from 3 Communication classes will present their winning Information speeches. These Finalists were selected by their classmates from speaking assignments in “Survey of Human Communication,” “Public Speaking” and “Interpersonal Communication.” A panel of faculty and administrative judges will rate the speakers according to the content, organization and delivery of their speeches. First Prize is $100 cash; Second Prize is $50 cash; Third Prize is $25 cash. Refreshments will be served while the judges are deliberating.
Student Finalists from 3 Communication classes will present their winning Information speeches. These Finalists were selected by their classmates from speaking assignments in “Survey of Human Communication,” “Public Speaking” and “Interpersonal Communication.” A panel of faculty and administrative judges will rate the speakers according to the content, organization and delivery of their speeches. First Prize is $100 cash; Second Prize is $50 cash; Third Prize is $25 cash. Refreshments will be served while the judges are deliberating.
Come to “See How It’s Done!” Learning how to speak in public is one of the fundamental skills in today’s competitive job market.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008 – The Debate Team will meet at 1 pm in Room 610 @ 50 West 23rd Avenue.
More hard work. What we do at this meeting will build on what we did on March 26th.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008 – Club @ 1 pm @ 610 @50 West.
The last Club meeting on the Presidential campaign was so interesting that everyone forgot to set a topic for next time. I promise it will be interesting! The topic will be posted in the next Club notes.
WHAT HAPPENED AT THE CLUB MEETING ON Wednesday, March 19, 2008.
Two new members, Alba Campuzano and Jetante Morris joined Drani Gabu, James Millner, Richard Green and David Nussbaum. George Backinoff led an exciting session of the current Presidential campaign. David took notes on the session. Drani distributed copies of Barak Obama’s speech on race and religion.
George asked the group what traits the President should have. Some suggestions included
- Preparedness
- Understand how the economy works for the benefit of all people
- Understand world politics
- Presents clear agenda
- Policy to protect nation from invasion
- Honesty
- Strong decision maker
- Fair and Balanced
- Stamina/Debater
- Candidates should have morals and charisma
George asked whether having been a First Lady was a qualification for being President. He gave examples of strong first ladies such as Edith Wilson and Eleanor Roosevelt. The group had mixed opinions.
Then the group focused on the issues of the campaign. Alba suggested an understanding of the economy and James suggested that the president should have a policy to protect the nation. Other issues that were mentioned included;
- Education (Improvement)
- Economy
- Health care
- Security
- War in Iraq resolved
- Race, gender, religion, age were issues for further discussion
The first topic to come up specific to the primaries is the controversy surrounding Obama’s association with Pastor Wright who has made controversial remarks which have been reported in the media of late. James read the New York Times excerpt of a recent speech by Obama addressing this. Drani read a different excerpt of the same speech from the Daily News.
The group then discussed the effects of the speech and how it was reported in these two very different newspapers.
The group noted that Obama made reference to his feelings of connectedness to both his white grandmother and to Pastor Wright. (The controversy that led Obama to make this fairly long nationally televised speech was over comments by the pastor of his church of choice).The group felt that Obama implied that Wright’s views may be influenced by conditions that no longer exist on the scale that Wright experienced them. The group agreed that Obama’s audience was a wide and inclusive one, and that the speech essentially succeeded.
Then George posed the question, “How should Hillary should respond to Obama’s speech?” All felt that she should not go on the offensive with personal attacks. “What about religion? George asked. The group shared a variety of personal feelings.
George pointed out that when Michigan governor George Romney made his bid for the Republican nomination for the Presidency in 1968, his religion was hardly an issue. Many did not know he was a Mormon, nor did they seem to care what his religion was. However, in this campaign, the opposite was true. When former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney George Romney's son, ran earlier this year for the Republican Presidential nomination, public pressure caused Romney to talk about his Mormon religion
Richard told of an article comparing the two religions of Clinton (Methodist) and Obama (Baptist) and how each religion has influenced the thinking and organization of the candidate. He promised to share this very controversial article.
Hal Wicke who had joined the meeting earlier, asked Alba, Jatante, Drani and James for their overall impressions of the election process so far. Jetante, Alba and James all would prefer to see a campaign that focuses on issues, and not personalities, race or attacking the other candidate. They seemed a bit disillusioned with the process. Drani commented that he expected the candidates to behave as adults, but was disappointed they were behaving as children. [Ah, the contrasts between expectations and reality are endless!]
At the end of this stimulating and informative session, all agreed it would be a good idea to have a Part Two. It would give all an additional stimulus to follow the events more closely as well as to provide an energizing atmosphere in which to discuss events as they unfold.
See you next time. Bring a friend!
Hal Wicke
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