The Colgate Debate Society is looking to build on its successes of the past year as a new semester of competition approaches.

Following the 2008-09 academic year, the Debate Society received the Debate Program of the Year award from the Society Advocating More and Better Argumentation.

In today's world of instant messaging and e-mail, eloquent speech seems to be an endangered art form. At Colgate there is a group of students striving to keep that spoken tradition alive -- the Debate Society.

The team is a branch of the Colgate Speaking Union (CSU), which is coordinated by John Adams and also includes Mock Trial, Model United Nations, and the Student Lecture Forum.

Conor Tucker '10 wants to give classmates the chance to be political pundits and not have to rely on "talking heads" to shape their opinions about the presidential candidates.

So he has helped organize events that bring students together to watch the presidential and vice presidential debates and share discussion afterward.

After the paper on Tolstoy has been turned in and the research notes on reverse micelles have been typed up, some students just want to use a different part of their brain for a different purpose for awhile.

So they strategize and ponder world domination by playing Risk or Axis & Allies, or release their inner Flea by plugging in to Rock Band or Guitar Hero.

A campus group called Game's Afoot fosters those moments by staging monthly game nights at the O'Connor Campus Center, which each draw about 70 students.