GCU TODAY • 5
T
he ability to speak confidently to a mass
audience is a natural gift, but communications
instructor Barry Regan understands the science
of public speaking — and his gift is the ability to convey
those skills to students. Under Regan’s direction, GCU’s
speech and debate team earned four first-place finishes
at major collegiate tournaments during the fall semester
following an award-winning inaugural year. GCU Today
picked his brain for more details.
1
Describe the last time you got into a debate
on campus. Who won?
I was arguing with communications instructor Jessi
Farmer about whether “American Sniper” avoiding the
politics of the Iraq War was intentional and, therefore, a
political statement or if it was unintentional and apolitical.
There was no winner or loser, but I’m going to selfishly say
I won because she conceded my point that not addressing
the politics of the war was in itself a political statement.
2
Howdo you coach students to address the
various angles of a hot-button issue?
I encourage them to avoid letting emotional views
overwhelm the evidence on polarized issues. They’re in
a better position to navigate those issues by looking at
more objective sources, such as statistics and empirical
facts, and let that support the argument rather than
using personal biases or viewpoints.
3
How do you train students to be compelling
public speakers?
To be a good public speaker you have to know
what makes us human, such as socialization and
telling stories. When it comes to impromptu or
extemporaneous speaking, it’s important to use a movie,
book or story — a narrative — as a lead-in to a speech to
connect with that human nature.
4
What’s the preparation like for your team
before competition?
On the speech side, it’s intense memorization of their
pieces and having all nonverbal techniques planned out
in advance. Every strategic pause or break in a speech
is purposeful. For debate, we focus on intense, intuitive
understanding of current events and having significant
resources from which to draw.
5
What’s the biggest misconception about
competitive collegiate speech and debate?
That it has to be aggressive and domineering,
or that the best debaters just yell and scream
and break the will of their opponents. The
best debaters never raise their voices, yet their
evidence is so good, their arguments are so
logical, and the audience stays with them, that
they’re unbeatable.
MICHAEL FERRARESI
Got Your
Number
5 ON 5 WITH
The GCU Foundation Run to
Fight Children’s Cancer on
Saturday will raisemoney to
support young cancer patients
and their families and bolster
research on better diagnostic
tools and treatments. Here’s
why the fight matters:
Barry Regan, College of Humanities and Social Sciences
It didn’t take long for
GCU’s partnership
withHabitat for
Humanity Central
Arizona to build
momentum. After the January kickoff, which
included 200 volunteersworking on eight houses,
threemore contractswere signed immediately
and several morewere pending as the University
began renovating up to 700 homes in GCU’s
neighborhood. Habitat’s David Bunzel said several
homeownerswere so impressedwith thework,
they signed up for additional improvements, and
word spread quickly to other residents. “They
realize this is not going to be just for a year or two,
it’s going to be amultiyear project,” said Todd
Rogers, Habitat’s chief strategy officer. “It’s a
relationship that’s going to continue to blossom.”
Oh,
Yeah?
photo by darryl webb
1
4
10
36
3,000
number of runners
anticipated on campus
$150,000
fundraising goal
for the beneficiaries,
Phoenix Children’s
Hospital and
Children’s Cancer
Network
Childhood cancer is
the No. 1 cause of death
from disease among U.S.
children over age 1.
percent of government
funding that goes to
childhood cancer
research
average age at which
a child is diagnosed
with cancer
number of children
diagnosed with
cancer every day
in the U.S.
