Johns Hopkins Magazine -- April 1997
Johns Hopkins Magazine
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APRIL 1997
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RETURN TO THE HOPKINS HEGEMON

AUTHOR'S NOTEBOOK

O N    C A M P U S E S

Author's Notebook
The Hopkins Hegemon
From an interview with writer Chuck Salter


"When I first met up with the debaters at the George Washington University tournament, they reminded me a lot of theater people I had known. They are very confident, very theatrical. You really do get caught up in the personas. And the more you hang out with them, the more you care about who wins and who is up against who. You learn the talk. Like sports, debate has a language all its own.

"I was also struck by the fact that the debate team is one group that alumni associate with long after they leave school. Debate gives them this circle of friends from Hopkins that they'll keep in touch with; also beyond Hopkins. They expand their circle of friends to people at Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Penn. When you go to these tournaments they are like reunions. Everybody knows oneanother; it's kind of like a big mixer. They crash on each other's floors in the dorm room. They e-mail each other during the week. There's a real strong social component-because they're finding like-minded people."