Professor moons rival at debates

Officials at a Kansas university are looking into a YouTube video that shows a debate team coach mooning a room of spectators during an argument after a competition.

Fort Hays State University debate coach William Shanahan is shown on the video in a profane, in-your-face argument with his counterpart from the University of Pittsburgh, Shanara Reid-Brinkley. The exchange took place in Wichita, Kan., in March, after a debate between Fort Hays and Towson State University teams.

Erroneous reports on the incident said it happened at Emory University in Atlanta.

The video was posted earlier this month and shows Shanahan bending over and pulling down his khaki shorts, exposing his underwear.

A Fort Hays academic officer says the Pittsburgh professor had accused the Fort Hays team of dropping her as a judge because she’s black. The Kansas school is also looking into what an official calls the “racial element” to the episode.

Michael Hester, director of University of West Georgia debate and an assistant dean of the Honors College, judged the debate before the coaches’ argument. He likens the incident on the video to a fight among sports fans — a personal argument that got out of hand but didn’t directly involve the debate competitors or judges.

Hester, who in the video is sitting at a table behind the arguing coaches, says debate has a competitive atmosphere that’s usually congenial but can get rowdy. This fight was unusually intense and their reactions were juvenile, he says, but the incident blew up because of the video’s appearance and popularity on YouTube.

“I’ve seen fights just as bad, if not worse, during a Wednesday night church league softball game,” Hester says. “Two individuals wanted to holler at each other and vent and let off some steam. They’re debaters — they like to argue.”

— Jamie Gumbrecht and wire reports