In a corner office on the fourth floor of Patterson Office Tower is the headquarters of one of the University's least-known competitive teams -- the UK Debate Team.
Last year the team was the top-seed going into the National Debate Tournament for the second year in a row, outranking schools like Harvard and Wake Forest.
In 1995, the team also set a record for winning the Top Speaker Award more times than any other college in the country.
Debate is much more than talking about an assigned topic for a few minutes, and it takes more than an eloquent delivery to win a tournament. To compete successfully with schools like Harvard, Northwestern and UK requires a lot of preparation.
Starting from the moment the year's topic is announced in mid-July, the UK debaters begin their research.
From then until nationals around the first of April, they must constantly update their research files, analyze and reanalyze the topic, plan their arguments and practice their speeches, said J.W. Patterson, director of debate.
Political science senior Paul Skiermont said team members can spend 20 hours per week on debate-related activities. This time does not include a week and a half in August and a week in January when they return to campus before classes begin to get in extra practice.
Debaters must spend long tournament weekends that last Thursday afternoon through Monday evenings.
Although political science freshman Jason Teagle admits it can be "tough to balance" debate activities with academic responsibilities, he said that it is worth the effort.
"Because of debate, I am much more confident speaking in front of people, and I have gained an appreciation of different points of view," Teagle said.
Stephen Stetson, a political science freshman, who has been debating for five years, said he enjoys debating because he likes the "debating community" and the friends that he has made while at tournaments.
Traveling to biweekly tournaments, anywhere from Massachusetts to Texas or Washington, D.C. to California, is like "going to college on multiple campuses because the students get the opportunity to interact with so many different types of people," Patterson said.
This weekend the team is competing at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
This is a rebuilding year for the program, having graduated all its National Debate Tournament eligible debaters, Patterson has confidence in his present students, a majority of which he personally recruited.
The team has already received an invitation to compete in the novice nationals at Northwestern University in March.
Patterson said that in the next couple years, there is no reason why the young squad cannot be of the caliber of the UK debate teams of the past.