Princeton debaters back at Penn year after assault

Last year, Princeton debaters learned a valuable lesson when they traveled to Penn for a tournament -- motor oil doesn't burn.

This year, however, there was no need to test that knowledge.

The weekend's Parliamentary Debate Tournament was, by all accounts, a success, without the resurfacing of any of last year's drama.

More than 150 students from about 75 schools -- including 21 members of Princeton University's debate team -- stayed at Penn on Friday night to compete in the two-day tournament.

Last year, the team's slumber was unexpectedly disrupted.

During the early morning hours of Saturday, Nov. 16, a group of five Penn students entered a Quadrangle lounge where the debate team was sleeping. After a verbal confrontation, some of them physically assaulted one of the Princeton students, John Brantl, pouring motor oil on him and threatening to light him on fire.

Initially, all of the Penn students faced charges, including aggravated assault. However, charges against three were eventually dropped, and two were required to serve an 18-month probationary period, which included anger management and alcohol counseling.

Aside from the calm of this year's tournament, there were some other noticeable changes.

Brantl, for one, did not attend this year's event. He is no longer a member of the debate panel.

However, Dan Greco, a Princeton sophomore and debate team member, was quick to note that Brantl's absence was not unusual, given that he had not been extremely involved in the group. "It's not like that caused him to leave or anything," Greco said.

Secondly, Princeton debaters did not return to the scene of the crime.

Though most of the debaters stayed with students who live on campus, the Princeton team was put up at a Penn debater's off-campus house.

Princeton debaters "weren't worried [about staying on campus] but it was something that we felt was a nice gesture on our part," Wharton sophomore and tournament director Craig Cohen said.

"The tournament director from the Penn team offered, really nicely, to house all our kids together in one house, housed us in a frat house, [and they] made sure we were well taken care," said Debate Panel President Katherine Reilly, who is a junior at Princeton.

Nick Pilchak -- a Princeton senior who last year, as Debate Panel president, had to cut short another tournament he was attending to handle the situation with Brantl -- agreed.

"The Penn debate team was an excellent host this year," Pilchak said. "They sort of fell all over themselves trying to accommodate us... our housing was definitely different from last year."

There were also no worries about rivalries between other teams turning ugly, either.

Greco, who attended both this year's debate and last year's, noted that while Princeton debate panel members are well aware of the incident that occurred last year, they were not concerned about returning to Penn's campus.

"We'll tell jokes... but I don't think there was any real resentment," Greco said.

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