The Forensics Society, an organization where students participate in intercollegiate debate competitions, was recently moved from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to the College of Industrial and Labor Relations.

The agriculture college’s financial troubles forced the Department of Communication, where the Forensics Society was housed, to let go of the society’s speech coach. Additionally, the communication department was looking into using the team’s more than $1 million endowment.

With over 100 students and a number three national ranking, Dean of ILR Harry Katz chose to absorb the Forensics Society into ILR. The switch enabled the society to avoid dipping into its endowment. Sam Nelson, director of speech and debate, accepted Katz’s proposal to move the society into ILR.

“So far the relationship at ILR has been amazingly positive. We are so thankful to them for putting us in a situation were we could thrive,” Nelson said.

Katz said that the Forensics Society fit very well into the ILR curriculum, according to the University. He noted the importance for ILR students to develop their argumentation and persuasion skills in order to achieve future success in the workplace.

According to Nelson, ILR has been able to maintain the Forensics Society’s current level of funding and give the team practice rooms, new computers and an office for the director and assistant. Previously, the team had no designated room to practice and worked with shared equipment.

“I think that it has been extremely beneficial for the team to have all the extra space. We have a designated area to do practice debates in now and it’s easier to coordinate,” said Leah Salgado ’12, co-social chair.

The history of debate at Cornell goes back to 1894 when the graduating class left money to start on-campus debate team. Speech, another category within Forensics, was added some years later. In the 1980s Pam Stepp, executive director and senior research associate in ILR, started Forensics at Cornell and helped them raise the money for the endowment they have today.

Forensics is made up of two categories — speech and debate. Debate can be broken down into “policy” and “world” while speech has many subsets. With over 100 members, the Forensics Society leans heavily on their volunteer coaches for the respective categories.

Using their volunteer staff and dedicated students as testament to the nationally ranked team, Salgado has positive thoughts for the future. “I think we have a large number of committed students. We are dedicated and want to do well. There is an increased level of intensity,” Salgado said.

Nelson echoed Salgado’s optimism. “It’s not really a bad thing, it’s more like we found a place we fit better,” Nelson said.