Beyond the Podium: Debate Club Takes on the Windy City

At Rivers, the debate club meets weekly, focusing on practical skills. Participants are given a topic in advance to debate in two teams, and a winner is chosen. According to Jason Minicozzi ’26, a co-leader of the club this year along with Lily Chung ’26 and Nick Pratt ’27, part of the club’s goal is “to make arguments about things you believe in.” 

In prior years, Rivers club members would make an annual trip to the JSA (Junior State of America) conference. When that dissolved, Rivers club leaders resolved to continue the tradition of an annual trip, but on their own terms. 

Last year, the group traveled to Washington, D.C., with a focus on economics and on the theme of “making the American Dream more accessible.” This year, the club leaders chose to explore the criminal justice system, culminating in a three-day immersive trip to the city of Chicago, which provided a backdrop for discussion and collaborative research on the American justice system. 

Unlike a conference with a set schedule, the itinerary was planned entirely by students. History faculty member Joanna Seymour, one of the debate club’s advisors and a chaperone on the trip, commented, “The heart of the experience lay in the rare access students had to the nation’s leading legal experts.” The debate club leaders arranged meetings with Chicago-based legal experts: David Olson, co-director of the Center for Criminal Justice at Loyola University Chicago, and Alison Siegler at the University of Chicago Law School. 

With Olson, the group learned about the Illinois Pretrial Fairness Act, which was enacted in 2023 and eliminated cash bail in the state of Illinois, making it the first state to do so. Olson was an advisor to the bill’s formation and offered context on its development and effects. He also discussed equity within the criminal justice system with the students, including implications in other states, such as Massachusetts. 

The group met Siegler inside a courtroom at the Dirksen Federal Building. “As the founding director of the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic, Siegler provided a masterclass on the legal mandates for defense representation, illustrating to students that the law is not just a set of rules on a page, but a living, breathing instrument of equity that must be vigilantly safeguarded,” said Seymour.  

Students also spent time at the Harold Washington Library translating newfound insights from their meetings with Olson and Siegler into drafting mock bills. Working in small legislative cohorts, they debated and designed bills on issues ranging from bail reform to juvenile rehabilitative justice.

“Meeting with these different professors, I thought it was so cool to see a potential career,” Minicozzi said. “As one of the organizers, one thing I really liked was to see everyone talking about the trip—to their friends, to their teachers when we got back. It’s an opportunity to learn about something in great depth that impacts a lot of people, and that not many people know about.”

Upon their return, trip participants presented their mock bills to other debate club members during a club session. A few examples included the “Youth Re-Incarceration Prevention Act,” a mock bill to help juveniles transition back into society through education, housing, and mental health support plans; the “Fair Plea and Guilty Trial Integrity Act,” to ensure guilty pleas reflect informed, voluntary choice by limiting coercive overcharging and restricting post-trial sentence increases, while preserving the right to a fair trial; and the “Pre-Trial Detention Correction Act,” a bill to enhance the equity of pre-trial detention and affirm the Constitutional right of presumption of innocence.

“Debate at Rivers is so cool,” said Minicozzi. “Not only do we hone the skills of debate, but we’re also arguing for what we believe in and diving into topics that make the world a better place and affect the world in a positive way. We’re being set up to go out in the world and achieve great things, and we can think about how we can make the world a better place.”