Sadly, debate programs have been disappearing from college campuses for decades, casualties of budget pressures and shifting institutional priorities. EWU\u2019s team, for example, had gone dormant. And then Tony Penders arrived.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cPeople think speech and debate is all about speaking,\u201d Tony Penders says, \u201cI always tell people it\u2019s really more of a listening event.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n Penders, an adjunct instructor, joined Eastern\u2019s history faculty four years ago. He had previously directed the debate program at the University of Indianapolis and, because he\u2019s convinced that debate helps students succeed in college and beyond, he was keen on reviving Eastern\u2019s. Soon after his arrival in Cheney he did just that, and today the seven-member Eagle Speech & Debate Club team competes in events across the nation. \u201cPeople think speech and debate is all about speaking,\u201d Penders says, \u201cI always tell people it\u2019s really more of a listening event.\u201d One can\u2019t, in other words, rebut what one hasn\u2019t absorbed. Or find weakness in a claim you weren\u2019t attentive enough to understand.<\/span><\/p>\n Penders\u2019 roots in debate traced back to his own undergraduate years at Gonzaga, a Jesuit university where formal argumentation is ingrained in its DNA. Now with students of his own, Penders remains convinced that verbal jousting doesn\u2019t just provide tools for arguing more effectively, it also serves as a \u201cfoot in the door\u201d for leadership and career opportunities.<\/span><\/p>\n Another benefit, he says, is the thrill of competing against students from other universities. At the end of January, for example, Penders and the Eagle team participated virtually in a tournament based in New York City, where Seamus Mahoney, the Speech & Debate Club president, placed second overall. A junior majoring in environmental policy and planning, Mahoney transferred to EWU from Lower Columbia College, a two-year community college in Longview, Washington. He says he arrived at Eastern already convinced that debate was for him.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not because I like going to other colleges to argue \u2014 though I do enjoy that,\u201d Mahoney says with a laugh, \u201cbut because of the community that it fosters within the institution and the connections that I can make beyond.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Resolved: Competitive argument is a most worthy Eastern activity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":484,"featured_media":966,"menu_order":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-86795","stories","type-stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","stories_categories-students","stories_tags-spring-summer-2026"],"acf":{"subheading":"","featured_image_format":"cover","display_byline":false,"display_featured_image":false,"display_date_published":false,"featured_video":"","Links":false,"Resources":false,"page_override_title":"","page_hide_sidebar":false,"page_enable_page_nav":false,"page_persona_bar_default_tab":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/86795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/stories"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/484"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/86795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86919,"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/86795\/revisions\/86919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2026\/06\/Mahoney-230x300.jpg\")