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Guilford student advances in British debate

LEWISTON, Maine -- Tamara R. Bucknell-Pogue of Guilford, Conn., a Bates College debater, recently advanced as one of two undergraduates selected to the semifinal round of the Oxford Union Inter-Varsity Debating Competition in Oxford, England.

As one of 78 teams from the United States, Canada and Europe, Bucknell Pogue and Bates senior Liam D. Clarke of Grand Rapids, Minn., advocated the proposition, "This house would keep its promises," in a debate against law students from Cambridge, Dublin and Gray's Inn.

"The Bates team's advancement was very significant," said Robert Branham, professor of theater and rhetoric and coach of the debate team at Bates. "This is the most important tournament of the year in Great Britain, and the top British teams are generally law or graduate students," Branham said. The Bates debaters were the only American pair to advance as far as the semifinals.

Bucknell-Pogue, a junior rhetoric major and deanÕs list student, received the Oren Nelson Hilton/Almon Cyrus Libby Award for excellence in first-year debate and competed in the Wesleyan Parliamentary Debate Tournament in 1996. A former member of the Bates equestrian team, she spent Short Term Ō97 in Belgrade and Zagreb and is currently spending a semester studying abroad in Jordan and Israel.

A 1995 graduate of Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine, she is the daughter of Susan Bucknell and Donald Pogue, 12 White Top Lane.

Located midway between the coast and mountains in south- central Maine, Bates is a 143-year-old undergraduate college of the liberal arts and sciences and is rated among the top 20 national liberal-arts colleges by U.S. News & World Report. Bates offers majors in 23 academic departments and six interdisciplinary programs, and encourages independent study, research in collaboration with faculty members and participating off-campus programs. Bates does not require standardized-test results for admission.