Pi Kappa Delta.

• Author: Littlefield, Robert S.
• Position: Special Issue: Visual Argument-Part 2

Pi Kappa Delta is a national honorary forensic organization for intercollegiate debaters, competitive individual speakers, non-classroom audience speakers, instructors teaching courses in oral communication, and anyone who values the "art of persuasion, beautiful and just." The emphasis of Pi Kappa Delta is forensic education, despite the fact that competition is valued, as well.

Pi Kappa Delta is the oldest collegiate national forensic organization of its kind in the United States. Pi Kappa Delta can rightly boast of its influence on the earliest forensic innovations. For example, the National Forensic League had its foundations in Pi Kappa Delta. The birth of national forensic tournaments, the expansion of individual events, the development of new formats for debate, the Guild of Forensic Educators, NEDA, and so forth, came from Pi Kappa Delta or its members.

Since the early 1980s, leadership in Pi Kappa Delta has spent considerable effort discussing what its role should be in the forensic community. Developmental conferences have been sponsored by PKD since 1989 to address these issues. Pi Kappa Delta has played an important role in the SCA by sponsoring programs annually and bringing together communication and forensic educators to discuss issues of importance. Pi Kappa Delta sees itself as an organization where all factions of the forensic community can find a place. This emphasis on community is something that may seem alien to newcomers to the coaching ranks. However, the fraternal nature of Pi Kappa Delta is one of support and history.

Members of Pi Kappa Delta believe that involvement in forensics should be more than paying an annual fee to belong. Pi Kappa Delta, and honoraries in general, place responsibility on institutions to make more of a commitment to forensic education than "year to year." Forensics is more than competition. Students should be taught and encouraged to conduct research, serve in...