Yonsei Students Won the Grand Prize in the National Assembly Speaker Cup National Debate Championship ‘Yonsei debate team’ from Yonsei University (led by Um Bo-woon of the Department of Economics) won a grand prize at the 1st National Assembly Speaker Cup National Debate Championship. The championship was held in Assembly Hall in the National Assembly from 16 to 17 July. The students from Yonsei said, “We hope more productive debate culture can be established in Korea through events like this,” and “it is essential to respect other peoples’ views for a better culture of debate to settle.” In the competition with 219 teams from 69 universities around the country, the team had 7 matches from the first stage and finally won the most honored prize with their 10 members. The preliminary competitions were done in league matches. Yonsei students beat 3 teams with three subjects: “University entrance system should be self-regulated,” “Personal identification on the internet should be abolished,” and “Korea should participate in the PSI.” In the final selection, the team had a fierce debate for 90 minutes over the subject of the “Amendment of constitution, what would be the proper position?” with students from Sogang University. Yonsei students took a position of “pro-amendment, change to parliamentary system” while the student from Sogang took “anti-amendment, continue to maintain the current 5-year term presidential system.” After the 90-minute debate, Yonsei students won the prize. They prepared for the championship by participating in many other debate competitions. From one month before the championship, the team gathered everyday and studied a wide variety of reading materials. More than 500 papers were read by the team during the period. They also practiced in various types of debate such as trial debate and issue-oriented debate. “The source of our victory was a synergy effect of diverse academic background of our 10 members with different majors,” they explained. Besides the team prize, the team also had an honor of seeing their member Song Ji-eun, a student from the department of Child & Family Studies, win the best debater prize. The team leader Um Bo-woon said, “We started the debate with the statement, ‘We do not believe in the National Assembly,’ and this paradoxical definition of our position finally led our team to the victory.” He continued, “We pressed Sogang University team with logic that the parliamentary government system, which balances the power more efficiently, is more suitable to reflect citizens’ voice, since the winner-take-all situation under the current presidential system produced inability and distrust of the National Assembly.”