Jeff Clune, a soon-to-be high-school senior from Detroit, Mich. with the unique talent to spew out facts at the rate of about 100 words a minute, has spent somewhere between $150 and $200 on photocopying in the past three weeks.
Clune is just one of the 112 students in the Dartmouth Debate Institute, a group whose hot summer hangout spots include Baker Library's photocopy machines and microfiche viewers.
"They go out of here ... with trucks of Xerox boxes each," said Reference Librarian Greg Finnegan, who works as the liaison between the debate camp and the library.
Finnegan estimates that the debaters have made 800,000 photocopies so far. "I think we topped a million last summer," he said. "They're the most intense users per capita all year."
The problems
The debaters spend many hours in the library, said Baker Circulation Supervisor Sue Marcoulier.
"They Xerox everything under the sun. They're so many of them. It's been so frustrating for everyone," she said. "There's just all over the place and taking up all of the machines."
"They're not enough copiers," complained debater Alex Apsaldo, a high-school senior from Charlotte, N.C.
But this year's problems at the library pale in comparison to past years. For example, Finnegan said several years ago microfiches of Playboy magazine were stolen.
Although Finnegan said it was never established that debaters were the thieves, he said they were the most likely culprits.
Debaters are given badges with magnetic strips that allow them to take out up to two books at a time from the library.
In past years there were problems with debaters trying to evade the library's magnetic detection system to take more books than they were allowed.
While Finnegan said he hasn't heard any reports of similar incidents this year, he said, "I don't doubt that that's happening."
The research
"We have sometimes referred to them as yuppie larvae or proto-lawyers," Finnegan said.
Debaters roam the entire library as they seek out unique slants on the issues.
"Apparently they get points for coming up with tacks that others haven't taken," Finnegan said. "Sometimes I'm flabbergasted by the weird angles they'll take."
Some documents are in such demand that they end up staying by the photocopiers for the length of the institute.
"We eventually give up re-shelving the stuff," Finnegan said.
Marcoulier said the debaters are supposed to give Dartmouth students priority on the machines.
But Finnegan emphasized that the Debate Institute is an official College program. "While [the debaters] are here they have Dartmouth privileges like everyone else," he said.
The competition
Any disruption at the libraries should now be over, as the debaters have finished their research and are currently competing in a tournament. The winning pair will be crowned today.
During yesterday's rounds, intense competition was going on in classrooms across campus. Each match pits two two-man teams against each other. A judge decides the victor.
Each team has numerous file folders of information ready to be pulled out at a second's notice to rebut arguments.
In one of yesterday's matches, one team used two large rubber bins full of photocopied material as a podium to speak from.
Often the debaters talk so fast &emdash; stopping only to take large gulps of air &emdash; that only the other team and the judge can possibly understand what they are saying.
The debaters must be prepared to debate the topic from the affirmative and negative sides, and they often do both sides in the course of one tournament.
