SDSU Forensics Team shines in historic fall 2025 semester

Fall semester 2025 has been a historic one for the San Diego State University Speech and Debate Team, also known as the Forensics Team. Collecting win after win, the team demonstrated exceptional argumentative skill this year.

The SDSU team won the first place Team Sweepstakes University Division Award at the Robert Barbera Collegiate Forensics Invitational Tournament, which took place at California State University, Northridge on Nov. 8-9. 

“This is the first time that our SDSU team has won a first place team sweepstakes award at a full-service collegiate forensics tournament in over two decades, from my records,” said John Loo, director of SDSU Forensics. 

This was followed by winning the first place Team Sweepstakes for Individual Events Award at the Griffin Invitational Tournament at Grossmont College on Nov. 15-16. 

“Both of these team sweepstakes wins show that our SDSU team is a top-tier forensics team this fall, especially in our Individual Speech Events,” Loo said.

Founded in 1949, the SDSU Forensics Speech and Debate Team provides a community for students to develop their public speaking skills and learn about a wide range of topics, such as social issues and national and international policy.

Spencer Simon and Audrey Fleige, third-years at SDSU and members of the Forensics team, received the ranking of 12th in the nation as a debate duo after their first tournament of the year.

In the tournament – their first time working together as partners – they won multiple preliminary rounds and made it to the semi-finals. Their strong performance resulted in a large collection of points, placing them 12th.

“It was very shocking and surprising, especially since we had only gone to one tournament so far, so it was pretty cool to see,” Fleige said.

In a debate, teams are given a topic 20 minutes before the start of the competition. The affirmative side argues in support of the resolution and provides a plan to enact it, while the negative side argues against it and provides possible counter-instances. After three speeches from each side, the judge decides who has a stronger argument.

Simon, a real estate finance major and Chinese language minor, participated in policy debate for four years while in high school. He was recruited to do parliamentary debate in his freshman year at SDSU and has been doing it ever since.

“I think my favorite thing about debate is the education,” Simon said. “Debate produces some of the smartest people I’ve ever met.”

Simon knew he wanted to do debate in college, and when SDSU offered him a scholarship to join the team, he decided he would continue his love for debate at the school.

“I am learning about geopolitics, philosophy, critical literature, feminist literature, Marxist literature, works on racial theories,” Simon continued. “All of those may get presented in class, but I get to actually articulate those on my own terms and then get critiques and learn.”

Fleige, a political science major and Spanish minor, has also been involved in speech and debate since her freshman year of high school. Fleige said the sense of community is something she loves the most.

“Speech and debate is kind of niche, so I think that the community is small, and you get to know everyone really quickly and you all have that one common interest and passion, and you're traveling together and going to tournaments together and competing together,” Fleige said. “You get to watch people get better, and support them and cheer them on when they win, and support them when they don’t.”

According to Simon, the SDSU Forensics Speech and Debate Team now has over 70 participating members after their recruiting process last academic year, and has been buoyed by a generous 2023 gift from SDSU alumnus Randy Bernstein (‘82) and his wife Aly. The Bernstein's support to the team has provided guidance to coaches and administrators and dedicated the Bernstein Theatre as a space for the team to focus on creating an enthusiastic and safe environment for students to compete and win.

“The Bernstein family is pretty nicely endowed and they do help us out quite a bit, given the fact that we accrued so many numbers and are quite successful at tournaments,” Simon said.

Because of the Bernstein’s generosity, Simon said the debate team has funding that allows them to travel for tournaments and have more opportunities to compete. The team’s best debaters and speech-givers will even be participating in this year’s international tournament in Greece.

“There’s nothing else that does it,” Simon said. “There’s not a single other event that gives you that breadth and depth of knowledge, at least that I’ve found.”

For more information on the SDSU Forensics Speech and Debate Team, visit their Instagram or website.