University of Helsinki Debating Society hasn’t been particularly active in debating competitions this past year. However, we are trying to revive that and the first step has been taken – we went to SSE Riga IV this December. The results have been quite pleasing: one of our teams (Ami Ganguli and Tianyan Liu) made it to the semi-finals. Ami was ranked 7th speaker and the rest of our debaters were ranked in top 20 out of 80+ participants. Note, that this was the first competition ever for Tianyan and he’s started debating only this autumn. We are oh-so-very proud!

Our second team (Anna Bessonova and Julia Toivanen) missed the break by just a couple of speaker points (i.e. 8 teams went through to semi-finals and Anna and Julia were the 9th team). The tab and motions of the tournament can be found here http://www.sserigads.com/tabbie/standing.php. (Our team names were Helsinki Finska and Helsinki Svenska)

You can also find photos from the tournament here http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=photos&gid=320493885640 or in the photo gallery of this page.

We hope to continue going to international tournaments and encourage you to join us! Ask any of us if you want to learn more.

Pikkujoulus are one of the many wonderful traditions Finland has. Every student organization, business company or a group of friends have a party like that and our debating society is no exception.

We’ll have ours on Wednesday 16th December from 18:00 onwards in Aurora (New Student House, Mannerheimintie 5B, 3rd floor).

What should you expect from the party? Debate fun and games! We’ll also have some snacks and drinks.
I’ll add more details closer to the day. For now, mark it in your calendars and hold your breath

Winter is here even if it doesn’t exactly feel like it . We all wish for more snow but while Finnish winter might be lacking it at the moment, we still have SAUNA! Hence, after our debate this week we will treat our members with the most Finnish thing there is and go to the sauna. Don’t forget your towels and refreshments (cold beer is highly recommended during and after sauna but cider and soft drinks can do the trick just as well).

We’ll meet on Tuesday 08th December at 18:30 in Cajsa (New Student House, Mannerheimintie 5B, 4th floor).
The motion will be disclosed only before the debate.

Hope you are enjoying the last month before Christmas and all the ‘pikkujoulu’s student life has to offer.
We are meeting as usual next Tuesday 01.12 at 18:30 in Cajsa (New Student House, Mannerheimintie 5B, 4th floor).
The motion will not be disclosed until 15 min before the debate

By the way, mark Wednesday December 16th in your calendar because that’s when we’ll have our society’s ‘pikkujoulu’ or ‘little Christmas’ celebration. It will be a night filled with debating and debauchery – you don’t want to miss it! More details later.

P.S. The motion for the week was: This House Would Allow Same-Sex Couples Adopt Children.