Named after | Brooks Quimby |
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Formation | March 20, 1854 |
Founded at | Lewiston, Maine, U.S. |
Affiliations | American Parliamentary Debate World Universities Debating Oxford Union |
The Brooks Quimby Debate Council (BQDC) is a debate society in Lewiston, Maine, primarily comprising students from Bates College. The society, known for participating in British and American Parliamentary debate styles, competes in the American Parliamentary Debate Association and the World Universities Debating Championship. Notably, it engaged in a debate with Oxford University in 1923, marking Oxford's first debate in the United States. [1]
The BQDC has achieved recognition in various debate championships. In 2017, the team reached the final round of the World Universities Debating Championships in The Hague. [2] Nationally, it ranked 5th in 2013 and 9th globally in 2012. [3] The New York Times once described Bates College as a central hub for college debating in America in 1922. [4]
The debate society's origins trace back to the Maine State Seminary, predating Bates College establishment. It was officially recognized in 1869 when the State of Maine granted charters to the Polymnian and Eurosophian Societies, early debating and literary groups at Bates. Women began participating in debates at Bates in the 1870s. [5] Under the guidance of Brooks Quimby, a Bates alumnus and faculty member, the society became the first in the United States to engage in intercollegiate international debates.
The 1930s marked a significant period known as 'The Quimby Institute,' where intensive individualized debate training was introduced. [6] This period coincided with the society's first international competitions. [7] [8] Key moments in society history include a victory over Harvard College in 1920 and participating in the first intercontinental collegiate debate against the Oxford Union in 1921. [9]
Academic scarf of the Brooks Quimby Council | |||||||||||||||||||||
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The BQDC actively competes both domestically and internationally, with notable achievements including winning the US Nationals at the US Universities Debating Championship. It continues to maintain a strong national and global ranking. [2] [3]
Lewiston is the second most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine, with the city's population at 37,121 as of the 2020 United States Census. The city lies halfway between Augusta, the state's capital, and Portland, the state's most populous city. It is one-half of the Lewiston–Auburn Metropolitan Statistical Area, commonly referred to as "L/A." or "L-A." Lewiston exerts a significant impact upon the diversity, religious variety, commerce, education, and economic power of Maine. It is known for having an overall low cost of living, substantial access to medical care, and a low violent-crime rate. In recent years, the city of Lewiston has also seen a spike in economic and social growth. While the dominant language spoken in the city is English, it is home to a significant Somali population as well as the largest French-speaking population in the United States while it is second to St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, in percentage of speakers.
Edmund Sixtus Muskie was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 58th United States Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter from 1980 to 1981, a United States Senator from Maine from 1959 to 1980, the 64th Governor of Maine from 1955 to 1959, and a member of the Maine House of Representatives from 1946 to 1951. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for vice president in the 1968 presidential election.
Bates College is a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine, United States. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals 813 acres (329 ha). It maintains 600 acres (240 ha) of nature preserve known as the "Bates-Morse Mountain" near Campbell Island and a coastal center on Atkins Bay.
The Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Consortium (CBB) is an athletic conference and academic consortium between three private liberal arts colleges in the U.S. State of Maine. The group consists of Colby College in Waterville, Bates College in Lewiston, and Bowdoin College in Brunswick. In allusion to the Big Three of the Ivy League, Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin, are collectively known the "Maine Big Three", a play on words with the words "Maine" and "main". The school names are ordered by their geographical organization in Maine.
Oren Burbank Cheney was an American politician, minister, and statesman who was a key figure in the abolitionist movement in the United States during the later 19th century. Along with textile tycoon Benjamin Bates, he founded Bates College as the first coeducational college in New England which is widely considered his magnum opus. Cheney is one of the most extensively covered subjects of Neoabolitionism, for his public denouncement of slavery, involuntary servitude, and advocation for fair and equal representation, egalitarianism, and personal sovereignty.
Parsonsfield Seminary, which operated from 1832 to 1949, was a well-known Free Will Baptist school in North Parsonsfield, Maine, in the United States. Also known as the North Parsonsfield Seminary, its preserved campus of four buildings is located on State Route 160 near the New Hampshire border. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Benjamin Edward Bates IV was an American rail industrialist, textile tycoon and philanthropist. He was the wealthiest person in Maine from 1850 to 1878.
Clifton Daggett Gray was an American minister who served as the third President of Bates College from March 1920 to November 1944.
New Hampton School is an independent college preparatory high school in New Hampton, New Hampshire, United States. It has 305 students from over 30 states and 22 countries. The average class size is eleven, and the student-faculty ratio is five to one. New Hampton School does not require a uniform.
Thomas E. Delahanty was a justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. He was appointed to the position on September 5, 1973 and later served as active retired from August 31, 1979 until his death.
Lewiston High School (LHS) is a public high school in Lewiston, Maine, United States. The school was founded in 1850 and has occupied its current building since 1973.The school mascot is the Blue Devil and the colors are blue and white. The new principal is Jonathan Radtke. From the 1930s to 1973 the high school was located on Central Ave and that building currently serves as Lewiston Middle School.
Jonathan Stanton (1834–1918) was an ornithologist and longtime professor of Greek and Latin at Bates College, a librarian and a supporter of the debate program.
The nominations made by Lyndon B. Johnson to the Supreme Court of the United States are unusual in that Johnson appeared to have had specific individuals in mind for his appointments and actively sought to engineer vacancies on the Court to place those individuals on the court.
Louis Scolnik is an American former attorney and jurist who served as the 94th Associate Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court from September 7, 1983 to July 31, 1988.
The Bates family is an American political and banking family from Maine and Massachusetts whose members include a prominent member of the prestigious Hell Fire Club, the 26th U.S. Attorney General serving under Abraham Lincoln, the second Governor of Missouri, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Arkansas, and a prominent textile tycoon who founded the Bates Manufacturing Company and Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. The family includes various merchants, politicians, inventors, clergymen, artists, and socialites.
The history of Bates College began shortly before Bates College's founding on March 16, 1855, in Lewiston, Maine. The college was founded by Oren Burbank Cheney and Benjamin Bates. Originating as a Free Will Baptist institution, it has since secularized and established a liberal arts curriculum. After the mysterious 1853 burning of Parsonsfield Seminary, Cheney wanted to create another seminary in a more central part of Maine: Lewiston, a then-booming industrial economy. He met with religious and political leaders in Topsham, to discuss the formation of such a school, recruiting much of the college's first trustees, most notably Ebenezer Knowlton. After a well-received speech by Cheney, the group successfully petitioned the Maine State Legislature to establish the Maine State Seminary. At its founding it was the first coeducational college in New England. Soon after it was established, donors stepped forward to finance the seminary, developing the school in an affluent residential district of Lewiston. The college struggled to finance its operations after the financial crisis of 1857, requiring extra capital to remain afloat. Cheney's political activities attracted Benjamin Bates, who was interested in fostering his business interests in Maine. Bates donated installments of tens of thousands of dollars to the college to bring it out of the crisis.
Elmer Hector Violette was an American jurist and Democratic Party politician from Maine. He was a justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court from 1981 to 1986 as well as a member of the Maine Superior Court, Maine Senate, and Maine House of Representatives.
The traditions of Bates College include the activities, songs, and academic regalia of Bates College, a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. They are well known on campus and nationally as an embedded component of the student life at the college and its history.