National Prison Debate League’s Post

Earlier this month, the Suffolk University Debate Team debated against a team from Jokela Prison in Finland. This was only the second time a U.S. collegiate team has debated an international prison team. The debate was on whether or not Finland should adopt U.S. style gun laws. The Suffolk team was on the affirmative side, arguing that Finland should adopt U.S. gun laws. The judges for the debate were John Katsulas, Director of Debate at Boston College; Patrick Waldinger, Assistant Director of Debate, University of Miami; and Michael Janas, former Director of Debate, Samford University. The decision was 2-1 for Finland. Professor Frank Irizarry, Director of the Suffolk University Debate Team and Senior Instructor in Advertising, Public Relations & Social Media, commented that he was happy and proud of how the team debated. He noted that three of our five debaters were novices and one was doing their first debate ever. Overall, the team had a strong semester, finishing fifth place at the Harvard/Suffolk joint tournament and second place at West Point, which is one of the most competitive tournaments of the semester in the JV Division. Congrats to our students and Professor Irizarry for a great semester!