Two Teams Compete in Final Round of James P. Hayes Jr. Moral Forum Debate Tournament

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. –Two pairs of University Honors 101 Moral Forum students at The University of Alabama will compete for $10,000 in scholarships in the final round of the ninth annual James P. Hayes Jr. Moral Forum debate tournament at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct.  27, in UA’s Ferguson Theatre. The event is free and open to the public.

Blair Bush, a pre-med student from Jackson, Mississippi, and Brittany Johnson, a biology major from Tuscaloosa, will be competing against Talmadge Butts, a political science major from Reform, and Jacob McHugh, a political science major from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Moral Forum is an annual dialogue and debate program that involves extensive research as students prepare value-based case studies representing positions on each side of an issue. This year, students will argue in support of and opposition to the statement: To be a more moral society, the U.S. government should continue the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones) in lethal engagement with foreign targets.

In teams of two, students conducted research, attended a six-part lecture series and constructed position statements for two required preliminary debate rounds. Each team must be prepared to argue both affirmative and negative sides of the same resolution.

Nearly 60 students are enrolled in the current UH 101 Moral Forum course. Guest lecturers this fall included Steven Groves, a senior research fellow with the Heritage Foundation, and Zeke Johnson, the managing director of Amnesty International USA’s Individuals and Communities at Risk program. Lane McLelland, the director of UA’s Crossroads Community Center, and Dr. Mark Nelson, the dean of UA’s College of Communication and Information Sciences, also met with the class.

For more information on Moral Forum, visit cesr.ua.edu.

Created in 2005, UA’s Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility established university-wide programming supporting the development of projects that nurture social responsibility and reflective, thoughtful citizenship. UA’s strong commitment to civic engagement and its history of community-university partnerships also serve as a foundation for the center.