C. Richard Petticrew Forum
competitive speech and debate team
About Us
The C. Richard Petticrew Forum is Purdue’s competitive speech and debate team. The Forum is named after the late C. Richard Petticrew, a Purdue alumni whose generous endowment provides the lion’s share of the team’s operating budget. The Pettircrew Forum was founded in 1990 at Purdue University.
The Petticrew Forum competes in policy debate, as well as interpretative, limited preparation, and general address individual speaking events (IEs). The team is a member of the National Debate Tournament (NDT), as well as the American Forensics Association (AFA),and the National Forensics Association (NFA).
Members of the team practice an average of four hours each week and compete in an average of four speech and debate tournaments each semester. Travel, lodging, and registration expenses associated with these competitions are subsidized by the team – though students are prioritized for travel on the basis of their prior competitive success.
Students Get involved!
Students interested in joining the Petticrew Forum should contact the team’s head coach, Jim Schultz, at Schul214@purdue.edu. In your email, please mention (a) your year and major, (b) your prior experience in competitive speech and debate activities, (c) whether you’re interested in competing in IEs or policy debate, and (d) any other information that you think might be pertinent (e.g., what specific IEs you’d like to compete in, or what your speaking positions are, etc.).
The Petticrew Forum does not accept ‘walk-ons’ throughout the course of the academic year, as this disrupts our practice and competition schedule. Those interested in joining the team are strongly encouraged to contact the team’s coach before the start of the fall semester so that they can be made aware of the team’s policies and expectations.
Petticrew Forum competitors in action.
