UWG News Archive

Inaugural Gibson Public Speaking Contest held at UWG

December 13, 2004

CARROLLTON, GA - The University of West Georgia’s Department of Mass Communications and Theatre Arts held the inaugural Gibson Public Speaking Contest Monday, Nov. 29, in Kathy Cashen Hall to honor Dr. Chester Gibson, professor emeritus and former chair of the department.

This contest was designed and arranged by Chris McDowell, instructor of mass communication and theatre, to provide students with a forum to exhibit their oratory skills. The contestants, one from each speech class, were selected first by their fellow students. Each instructor looked at their winning speeches and selected one student to proceed to the contest based on the overall quality of his or her speech.

“I feel all students benefit from this because they can see the power of and the quality of good speeches,” McDowell said. “We also created this contest to call attention to the importance of public speaking, so that through the presentation of a diversity of topics it could be shown that the product of our classes definitely has a place in society. We are proud of all our students and we congratulate them for doing so well not only in this demonstrative event, but also in the absorption of what it is we teach.”

The contest was named after Gibson because of his efforts in building the department. He directed the nationally recognized UWG debate team for more than 23 years and annual debate tournaments. Gibson’s achievements also include being recognized twice as the Most Outstanding Faculty Member in the School of Arts and Sciences.

Gibson and other Mass Communication and Theater faculty members donated $800 for the contest prizes. During the awards ceremony, Gibson and his wife, Faye, announced the establishment of an endowment to fund this annual event, contributing $11,000.

“We wanted to acknowledge Dr. Gibson and dedicate to him this annual event in honor of the many years of dedication, contribution and service to the University of West Georgia and specifically the Department of Mass Communications and Theatre Arts,” McDowell said. “It is awesome that Dr. Gibson and his wife established this endowment. He is truly dedicated to UWG!”

Seven contestants were evaluated on the content and quality of their speeches, their persuasiveness, their construction of arguments, the support they provided for those arguments, the utilization of credibility, logic and emotion (otherwise known as ethos, logos, and pathos) and their delivery of the material. Gibson, Dr. Glenn Novak, professor emeritus and former department chair, and Dr. Melanie McCellan, vice president of student services and dean of students, were the judges.

The winner of the $300 first-place prize was Kim Martz Douglasville, who spoke on “Safe Sex and STDs.” The second place winner of $200 was Holly Chambers of Carrollton, who spoke on “Legalizing Gay Marriage.” and the third place winner of $100 was Kylie Campbell, of Buchanan, who spoke on “Stem Cell Research.”

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